Turn Back Time
by LUNAtic2111
Summary: Anton Belikov and Ava Dragomir both lost a parent when they were young, and – being Rose's boy and Lissa's daughter – they are not ready to resign to that fact. With spirit help, they go back in time to rescue their teenage parents who don't even know what is going to hit them – much less who those two kids are who are ready to take any shot for them.
1. Prologue

**Hi everyone!**

 **I know, kids going back in time to save their parents is hardly an original concept, but it sure is fun to write, and, hopefully, fun to read. This story is told from the perspective of Rose and Dimitri's son, Anton. And he did not turn out to be quite like you might expect Rose's offspring to be… Read to find out why :-)**

 **Also, I'm looking for a beta reader for this story! If you like it and are interested to beta me, pm me! I'll be happy for your advice!**

„Hold still now, I can't concentrate!"

"Wow, if minor fidgeting hinders you from concentrating, I see major problems ahead for this venture."

"Shut up, or I'll send you off without your return ticket!"

"Go ahead, at least that would prove you can do it!"

"Both of you, shut up!" I interrupted my best friend and her sister's bickering. Since we were hiding in their mother's rooms, all of this took place in a whisper, but I had enough of their quarreling anyway. "We're wasting time. Are you done?"

Liliana, my 18-year old almost-cousin – we weren't technically related, but we had basically grown up together – held up two massive and fairly ugly silver rings in front of us.

"I think I'm all done. Of course I can't really be sure whether it works until you try it."

"Meaning, if you botched it, we'll be stuck in the past with no way back," grumbled her sister. Ava was fifteen like me and sadly coming out of her tomboy age now. Both sisters put their heads so close together that their white-blonde hair unified into a platinum waterfall. They owed their beauty largely to their mom, and I sometimes wished they had gotten more of her gentleness and sweetness as well, but I had yet to detect a trace of that –I guess we have to thank their father's genes for that. Anyways, right now, I think the stress of the situation made the sisters hang on each other's throats even more so than they usually did. And that was saying something.

I had to hand it to them that they were even capable of something as normal as bickering right now. It had sounded simple in theory: go back in time, save your parent from a mysterious threat, go back to a new and improved future. Now, cowering behind the old-fashioned sofa that stood in front of the drawer from which we had just stolen some ancient Dragomir heirlooms, I was trying to wipe my sweaty palms on my pants so that the ugly ring with the Dragomir crest wouldn't slip out as Lily passed it to me. Ava was holding the other one up to examine it.

It was an ungainly chunk of silver, composed of a flashy band and a lump which sported the Dragomir crest in relief. I can't believe anyone would have worn that on their finger at any point in history. They wouldn't have been able to lift their hand. The size of the rings was why we needed them, though. With all the magic Lily was forcing into the silver, there had to be a lot of it, and it had to be in one piece.

I can only assume Ava was going to say something smart-ass about the aesthetics of the Dragomir crest, because just as she opened her mouth and drew a breath, the door to the little-used dressing chamber opened as well. Simultaneous, Lily, Ava and me froze, ducked our heads deeper below the backrest and held our breaths.

"Your majesty, it is merely a formal meeting, not a ceremony. There is no need for pomp."

If at all possible, the three of us froze even more. If the queen was going to look into the drawer we had taken the signet rings from, she would invariably see us perched behind the sofa with the stolen rings in our hands.

The queen? Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that… Lily and Ava are Princesses. Not just Moroi princesses, the way every other royal dickhead can become a prince or a princess, but real, genuine, true-blue, born-and-bred princesses. As in, daughters of a queen. The Queen, Vasilisa Dragomir, first of her name, ruler of all Moroi around the world and lots of other stuff that announcers never get tired of mentioning.

Sounds pretty cool, uh? To me, well… I grew up with them. It still smells when they fart.

Anyways. Said queen was about an inch away from discovering us in the act of stealing royal heirlooms. That was so not good.

 _What's mom doing here?_ Lily mouthed mutely. Ava mouthed back a reply that looked like _I have no idea laced_ with a few swearwords.

We heard the queen rummaging in some other drawer across the room,

"I'm not looking for pomp," she told the guardian with her. I recognized his voice – I was pretty familiar with all of Ava's and her family's guardians, a lore acquired by sneaking away and hiding from them countless of times. When your best friend is a heavily guarded member of the highest royalty around, you learn to find ways to play without an adult breathing down your neck.

"It's those signet rings I need," Vasilisa continued. "If they want me to sign this contract as a show of solidarity, I'd better do it properly. Those Russians have a soft spot for antique ceremonies, and I want to pacify them."

Of all the moments in time! Those rings had never – never ever – been actually used in the last century at least! And now of all times she needed them? I couldn't believe our luck.

Ava's face was showing that she was smacking her head mentally, a mirror of what I was feeling. Lily, in contrast, was frowning so badly her head might crease permanently. I looked at her questioningly.

"Now," she mouthed.

I almost jumped up and screamed at her that she was an idiot, precarious situation or not. That was some stupid idea. We were not prepared. We had planned for her to rest at least another twenty-four hours before attempting the feat we were planning on her attempting, and at least for my part, I was planning to mentally prepare myself. But Lily silently shoved the little backpack we had prepared for our travel into my lap – how had she known to bring that? – and took my and Ava's hands. At the sight of her closing her eyes and deepening the creases on her forehead even more, I think I was pretty close to having a panic attack.

I was shaking my head so violently I was risking attracting attention with the mere motion. But Ava gave me a scolding look. I sometimes felt like our roles were reversed from how they normally are in the vampire society: as a dhampir, I should be all protective and big hero and stuff. As a Moroi, she should be all helpless and needy and weak. I wasn't a hero in any way, though, and Ava was far from weak. Even as I was begging for this crazy stunt of Lily's just not to work and for simply nothing to happen when she was done, I was glad that I had Ava with me in the adventure we were potentially about to face.

I would be glad to have Ava with me in the not all that unlikely event of facing her mother's wrath as well.

Like the touch of wind, I could feel Lily's spirit magic weaving its way around me. I have always admired Moroi magic, and the enigmatic element of spirit most of all. It was what had always drawn Lily so close to her mother: that the two shared the rare and mysterious element that until Vasilisa had discovered it, no one had even known about. I knew that it had always been a cause of grieve for Ava not to share in that special connection. When she had been younger, I had found her crying and hiding from them countless of times, feeling left out when her mother and sister practiced magic together or talked about the ancient mysteries.

For her to have lost her father might have been even more bitter than for me to have lost my mom. At least I don't have a sibling with whom to compete with for the affections of my dad. Mind you, I could very well do with a little competition, what with the way my dad is protective of me. Maybe that's why I turned out to be such a worrywart. My dad loves me fiercely, and he'd do everything to ensure my safety and wellbeing. I love him in return, and that is why it hurts so much to see him still pining after my mom. While the queen, a few years after her husband's death, took a new consort – whom I don't believe she ever loved, though – my father remains single and solitary to this day. Hence my motivation to travel to the past. Hence, also, my greatest fear in going. If something happens to me, I'd be taking away the only reason he has left for living, and I know it.

The tingling of spirit on my skin soars, and my reminiscing is cut short by the feeling of electricity coursing through my body, seeking a way out. This is when I realize that our plan is working. We are going to the past.

I am going to see my mom, the famous Guardian Rosemarie Hathaway.


	2. Meeting Rose

The first thing I noticed upon arriving in the past is how the same everything was. Either we hadn't actually arrived in the past, and everything that Lily had achieved was to make herself and Vasilisa just magically disappear, or this room hadn't been touched since before our parents died. Which would have nothing to do with sentimentality so much as with the fact that the queen couldn't be bothered with palace beauty operations after the tragedy.

Ava was still sitting in the exact same spot she had in our own time, returning my wide-eyed stare.

"Did it work?" she whispered.

"How would I know, do you see a calendar?" I hissed back.

"Knowing this place, it could be from a hundred years ago," Ava muttered.

Before I could even get my wits together, she had already poked her head out from behind the sofa, which looked a little less dusty but no more fashionable than in my own time. Just as I was about to venture a look at our surroundings as well, her hands came down hard on the top of my head, keeping me down. My protests evaporated as she crouched beside me and shushed me with a finger in front of her lips.

In a bizarre replay of what had just happened with the queen, I hear the door open.

"Jeez, you should really have someone get rid of all that junk," I hear the cheerful voice of a girl say. "Looks like the clutter of the last few hundred monarchs is still lurking around your house."

Another voice laughs lightly. "Watch what you're calling junk. I think some of those pieces of furniture would make a fortune in an auction house."

Next to me, Ava tenses. I feel for her. In my lifetime, I have never heard her mother sound so carefree and young. But the voice is unmistakable. Once again, we have been interrupted by Queen Vasilisa while illegitimately sneaking into one of her rooms.

"Get it to an auction house, then," the other girl says. "Some ancient lady can have fun with it, feeling young again with a recliner that was in style when her grandpa was born."

"Rose, don't be so disrespectful!" Young Vasilisa's voice is so mesmerizing it takes a moment for her words to sink in.

Rose. As in, Rosemarie Hathaway. My mom. She's here. _My mother is here!_

I meet Ava's concerned green eyes, inches from mine. She has enough of her mother's compassion to immediately forget her own worries when she knows I need her. Apparently, meeting your dead mother for the first time beats meeting a happy version of your own.

Her quiet eyes tell me not to worry. I have no idea whether worrying is the appropriate reaction for the situation I'm facing, because suddenly, I'm also facing the disquieting feeling of a stake poking into my back.

My breath hitches, and my eyes must be close to popping out of their sockets with how wide I open them now. Ava sucks in her breath with a sharp sound, but it is the voice of the girl that makes its way into my fuzzy mind.

"What are you doing here?" Rose Hathaway hisses behind my back. Her voice doesn't sound nearly as carefree as it did a second ago.

"Um, we're…" begins Ava, but then, even she realizes what kind of mess we managed to place ourselves in. While we would merely be accused of playing with the queen's valuables without permission in our own time, things are a little different here. No one knows us. The guardians haven't spent the past fifteen years watching us grow up. We have no business in the royal palace, let alone the queen's private chamber. To this guardian – I mean, to my mom – to the stranger that is my mother, we are a threat. We are illicit perpetrators, and the first thing she thinks of is to eliminate the threat to her charge and protect the life of the queen.

The first thing I think of is, _Please don't let my mom kill me_ , and then, _I was going to put on my best shirt to make a good impression, but good that I didn't, because now it would have a hole in the back of it._

The door slams open again, letting in a bunch of back-up guardians that Rose must have called surreptitiously as soon as she realized someone was in the room. The girl must have a second sense for that, because I swear Ava and I hadn't made a sound.

I guess it wasn't for nothing that Rosemarie Hathaway had a soaring reputation among the guardians even thirteen years after her death.

"Rise, slowly," she now commanded in a voice that made it clear I was dead meat if I dared to make a wrong more. My back was to her. I could only watch Ava take in her appearance with awe. I was longing to lay eyes on my mom.

"You!" The sharp point of the stake nudged me dangerously. "Turn around."

Finally. I turned around. Within minutes of my arrival in the past, I stood facing the woman whose absence had influenced my whole life.

I had seen pictures of her, of course, even though my Dad preferred to keep them hidden in a chest in the back of a drawer. He always said that pictures didn't do her justice. It is only now that I understood what he meant.

Rose Hathaway was beautiful. Her eyes sprayed liquid fire as she pierced me with a look that could turn milk sour, and her dark hair flowed around her as she followed my movements, never letting the stake disconnect from my skin. The knowledge that I'd be dead meat in a second if she so decided made her lithe body seem even more lethal, and the fierce expression on her face turned her full lips and even skin into the mask of an avenging angel. For a moment, I was so stunned by her appearance that I forgot to breathe.

I know it might sound weird for a teenage son to describe his mother in that way. But believe me, my admiration for her doesn't even remotely touch on any sexual connotations. I was totally and completely overwhelmed by the fact that a person as beautiful as this could ever be the mom to someone as average as me. Maybe, if I had grown up with her, I would have gotten used to it and not appreciated it, but right now, her superior looks kind of blew me away.

"What are you doing here?" My mom ripped me from my stupor by a sharp hiss accompanied by another nudge with the stake. We were now surrounded by guardians, all alternating between hostile glares and confused looks. We were only kids, after all, and not the most likely choices for an attack on the queen.

Though from what I had heard tell of that time, anything had been possible then.

"Don't stab him, Rose," the queen suddenly interjected, her voice calm and friendly. She stood behind Rose, the only person in the room that wasn't disturbed by the presence of a potential assassin.

"Well, answer, then," Rose said harshly. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, we're…" I stammered, forcing myself to snap out of admiring my mother's beauty. And the fact that she was presently very alive and standing in front of me threatening me with a stake.

"We're lost," Ava came to my rescue. _Lost?_ I thought. _That's the best you can do?_

"What were you looking for?" Vasilisa asked mildly.

"Um…" I racked my mind for a public area of the palace that was both nearby and of interest for a teenager, but I didn't even know whether the public areas now were still the same as they were two decades into the future.

Ava, apparently, decided to go for the obvious. "The restrooms."

 _Remind me to take the next opportunity to explain to her just how bad a liar she is._

"The restrooms?" Rose repeated, cocking an eyebrow. "Really?"

"I guess it's off to the interrogation room with you," another guardian finished.

….

If Rose had been present for the interrogation, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad. Which is not to say that I expected any kind of leniency from her, but being able to watch her and being in her presence would have made the whole experience worthwhile.

Great, now I sound like a creepy stalker.

On the upside, Ava – who did most of the talking, seeing as I was lost in a haze of dopey Rose-admiration – managed to convince the guardians that we were only two teenagers who wanted to meet the queen and had no better idea than to sneak into her private quarters. The only thing that seemed to really bother them was how we had managed to get in in the first place. There was probably no place on god's green earth that was more heavily protected than the Moroi queen's living quarters, and we had shown up there like two tourists taking pictures of the Eiffel tower. When Ava was adamant in claiming that we had come in through the front gate and waited until the guardians' backs were turned, the guardian doing the interrogation left with an expression on his face that made me pity the guy who had been on duty while we allegedly snuck in.

"That was a great start," I sighed when Ava and I were finally let out of the interrogation room and left to make our own way out of guardian headquarters.

"Oh yeah," Ava agreed. "Instead of keeping our distance from our parents and a low profile, we meet two of them and almost get convicted for attempted murder on the queen. Now we're Courts new crazies."

"But we met her," I said, still incredulous. "We met Rose."

This was precisely the moment we met Rose – again.

"So," she greeted us, leaning leisurely against a doorframe to the head guardian's office that we had to pass. "Finally declared you innocent, did they?"

"Um, yes," Ava said. "They did."

"They might have," Rose continued, and I suspected that the smile on her face was tremendously deceptive. "But I haven't. And I caught you in _my_ charge's rooms."

"Oh, come on, they are the queen's rooms," Ava retorted, her patience evidently come to an end after enduring about three hours of interrogation. "Do you honestly think that those guardians didn't do a very thorough job interrogating us when the queen's safety is concerned? Like you'd do it better just because you happen to be assigned to the queen!"

I groaned inwardly. "Ava…"

Forfeiting my direst fears, Rose did not tear us apart. Instead, a grin spread over her face. "As a matter of fact, I have a fairly high regard of my ability to do a job I set my mind on regardless of the social standing of my charge. You just wait until I find your parents' phone numbers and tell them what their offspring has been up to."

She had clearly meant to threaten us with that, but obviously, the result wasn't quite what she had expected. While I felt myself go bright red with the thought of how important is was that she _not find out who my parents were_ and the vivid picture of what my dad would say if he found out I had illicitly snuck into the private rooms of a lady, Ava snorted with barely contained laughter. Rose, not realizing that our reactions were to be put down to quite another reason than her threats, seemed satisfied with herself. She left her post at the door and joined us on our way out.

"Are you guys living at Court?" she asked, once we were out on the busy square in front of the guardian building.

"We're just visiting," Ava, quick-witted as usual, replied. I had yet to string two words together in Rose's presence.

"Queen tourism, right? Is that a new thing now?"

"I don't know," said Ava, getting a little defensive. "We just wanted to see her."

"Well, then," Rose said. "What do you two think about a little head-to-head with the queen, privately and perfectly legally?"

Ava frowned. "What? You want us to meet the queen?"

"Yes," Rose smiled. "Or did it only hold allure for you as long as it involved breaking and entering?"

"We didn't break anything," Ava huffed.

"Do you want to meet the queen or not?" Rose's tone was teasing.

"Of course we do!" I thought it best to interrupt Ava before she could say something imprudent. Even though spending an exceeded amount of time with nineteen-year old Vasilisa Dragomir might not be the best idea, considering that the image of her own teenage daughter visiting her might eventually resurface two decades into the future and confuse the hell out of her, we had to take this bait. If we refused the opportunity to personally meet the queen now, all our previous work with the guardian interrogation would pretty much be for naught.

Rose laughed. "What are your names?"

"Anton," I said. "This is Ava." We had decided on going with our real surnames, to avoid the danger of us accidentally saying the wrong name to each other.

"Call on the palace admin office tomorrow morning, then," Rose said. She was already turning away from us, indicating that our paths would split now. "I'll make arrangements for you."

She was already halfway out of sight when Ava called after her: "Why?"

Cheerfully, Rose turned and gave us a wide grin. "Because I'd rather have you still your urges when I know where you are rather then attempting another sneak-in!"

With that, she disappeared from view, and I was left with the weirdly warm feeling that resulted from the knowledge of my mother's existence.

* * *

 **So, this is the beginning of my new story. It might still be a little confusing, but I try to work important information into the next few chapters.**

 **I'm really excited to hear if you guys are interested in reading the next chapters! Leave a review!**


	3. It's him!

**Thank you for all your lovely reviews! I'm really glad you like this idea. Here's the next chapter for you!**

It wasn't until Ava nudged me gently that I snapped out of my admiration for my long-ago-deceased and yet very much alive mother. Turning to her, I realized she was looking at me with worry in her eyes.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes," I told her, though not quite sure yet. "It's just… it's weird. I mean… why am I telling you, you met your mom in a younger version, that must be just as weird."

"I don't know," Ava replied, looking away. "I have met my mom before, after all. Sure, she's different, but she's still familiar. The thought of meeting my dad though – that really weirds me out. I mean, every time we talked about him, or looked at pictures of him, the knowledge of him being dead was so pervasive."

"Yup, I can relate to that," I said. I couldn't prevent a small sigh from escaping me. The thought of my mother – and Ava's father – had been laced with sadness and grieve for as long as I could think.

Ava shook her head, as if to get rid of the memories. "Where do we go from here?" she asked.

"Well, we'll have to do what we came here for. We have to find Robert Doru."

Robert Doru. The man who had ruined our lives.

It had taken us quite a while to figure out what had happened the day that Rosemarie Hathaway and Christian Ozera had died. My dad and Ava's mom didn't talk about it. For years, we had only been told that there had been an accident, and that my mom and Ava's dad had perished in it. Robert Doru's involvement had been a revelation that neither of us had reckoned with. That our parents had not died in an accident at all, but had been murdered in an attack targeted to Queen Vasilisa had been a shock that had blown both of us away when first we found out about it. To this day – or rather, to the day we left our time – no one but Ava's sister Liliana knew that we had learned the true cause of our parents' death, and she had found out along with us. There had been no trace of the secret in either my place or the royal residence. But the world had known what had happened so close to the queen, and both her husband and her loyal guardian had been fairly famous. So, it had only been a matter of time until we stumbled over bits and pieces of our family histories in the internet or recent history books.

And with the knowledge that a man had caused one of our parents to die and the other to succumb to unhappiness, the revelation that that man could be stopped had come to us.

It should probably be said that we had a few more options to our disposal than the average adventurous kid. Not only did we have very close connections to the queen, and consequently guardian and government intelligence as well as a few favors to call in. But the one thing that enabled us to even consider doing something to change the past was Liliana. Once Liliana was about ten and her specialization as a spirit user was starting to show, she started experimenting with what she could do. It was Lily who first had the notion that bending time might be within the power of a spirit user. With the first publicly known spirit user as a Mom, Lily had training and support galore, despite the fact that her mother kept cautioning her as to the dangerous side-effects of spirit. Lily kept honing her powers, and with time, she found that she was indeed capable of sending things into the past.

Now, Lily is a kick-ass spirit user, but even she has to play by the rules of spirit magic. Spirit is not like other elements. You can't just use unlimited amounts of it. You have to ration it. Lily couldn't just go along time traveling back and forth as she wished. She managed to send objects a few days into the past, but as to the big gig, she had to preserve all her strength and powers for that one special moment.

Those limits are another reason why it was Ava and me who had been sent into the past. Lily couldn't make herself go. She had tried, but it just wouldn't work. It was just like when Vasilisa tried to heal herself: it was as if spirit was simply made to assist others, and not the users themselves.

Now comes the really weird part: none of this would have been possible without me. That makes me sound maniacally egotistical, I know, but I'm perfectly aware that it's not because of any great deed of mine. No, big deeds – really not my thing. The fact remains, though, that Lily can handle amounts of spirit that would reduce other users to a drooling vegetable. Because of my presence. I'm some kind of protection against the mental instability that spirit usually provokes. I'm a spirit-darkness-averter.

I guess I owe that to it being thanks to spirit that I exist in the first place. With both my parents being dhampirs, I should, strictly speaking, not exist. They shouldn't have been able to conceive me. Okay, let's not go into detail where my conception is concerned… Anyways, dhampir and dhampir cannot have children. Unless one of them happens to have been Strigoi and been reverted to their original state by a spirit user, like my dad. Then they can. Which, since Strigoi restorations are extremely rare events, means that I'm pretty one in a million. It also seems to entail me having a few special talents of my own. Hence the fact that I'm some kind of power source for Moroi magic users. When I'm in contact with them while they practice their magic, they don't tire out. When a spirit user is in close proximity with me, they don't feel the drain of spirit. They don't go crazy. It doesn't help Ava's and Lily's mom much, because she takes meds and I don't see her often anyways. But Lily and I have been close growing up, even if not as close as I am with Ava. She can use spirit freely without consequences, as long as she doesn't go totally over board. We think that without me, our little time travel experiment would never have been possible without leaving Lily a broken shell of a being. Even now, we can only hope that Lily is alright in her own time. We cannot be sure that sending us back into the past hasn't already been too much for her.

Now, back to the present – my present now. Ava and I were standing wonderingly in the middle of Court, mildly surprised at the outdated fashion people wore. Rose had long since disappeared, and we were left with no real clue what to do next.

"We have to check whether we really are in the right time first. Could be that Lily didn't get it quite right in the hurry," Ava cautioned as we started to aimlessly amble over the grassy slope that extended in front of us.

"Right," I agreed. "We need a calendar. Or a newspaper. We should _probabl_ y avoid asking people what year it is."

"If we weren't already in a precarious situation, I'd have half a mind to try exactly that," Ava said mischievously. "Just to see their faces."

"I'm glad there was an _if_ in that sentence," I relied dryly.

Suddenly, Ava gripped my arm so tightly that it hurt. "That's _him_ ," she hissed.

"Who?" I replied, immediately on the alert and looking about. "Your dad?"

"No!" she whispered. " _Danny_!"

Sure enough, once I knew whom to look for, the tall, gangly young man walking side by side with an exceedingly sweaty black-haired guy did seem vaguely familiar. Studying him further, I recognized the sharp nose that would only get sharper, the downward slope in the corners of the mouth and the bushy eyebrows of the man who would later become the new and not much loved consort of the queen.

To be honest, it has always been beyond both me and Ava to figure out what her mom saw in this guy. She had never let her new relationship get in the way of her relationship with her daughters, but he had been around enough for them to figure out that there was absolutely nothing special about the guy. He wasn't bright, he wasn't good-looking, he wasn't particularly kind-hearted, he wasn't the most loving of guys… Could be he was a rocket in bed, but other than that, the reason why queen Vasilisa kept him completely eluded me.

"Is there something on my face?"

That snapped me out of my contemplation. The men were passing us, and we had been staring at Danny too obviously.

"Nope," Ava said, a tinge of hostility way too evident in her voice.

"Then would you please quit staring at me?" Danny said, riled.

"Well, except your nose," Ava added, belligerently. "That attracts some attention."

"What?" the younger Danny said, clearly annoyed now. "Look, kid, I haven't done anything to you, so go and vent your pubertal anger somewhere else, will you?" I could understand why he would be peeved to have people confront him for things he would be doing twenty years from now…

"It's what you're going to do," Ava muttered under hear breath.

"Ava!" I hissed, at the same time, both to call her to reason and to cover up whatever stupidity she was about to say.

"Come on, Dan," Danny's companion told him, drawing him away from us. I was momentarily shocked at seeing the same piercingly blue eyes fixed on me that usually looked out of Lily's face. In this guy, they contrasted sharply with raven hair that would need a haircut in the very near future.

Then I looked again at the second guy. And I realized that Ava had recognized him before me. We were facing Christian Ozera. We had just unwittingly started a fight with Ava's dad's friend. Though on second thought, I wasn't so sure if friendship was what you could call it.

A lot of things hit me at once, then. One was that we were standing in front of a guy who, until a few hours ago from our perspective, had been frigging _dead_. Somehow, he had always seemed even more dead to me than my mom. Then, that this was Ava's _dad_. The man she'd wished she'd had for her whole life. And that we really did not hit it off great with the people of the time, first being caught in an alleged break in, then picking a fight for no apparent reason…

Then, I stopped thinking, because I realized that no good came of it.

"They're staring at me now," Christian Ozera remarked, dryly, cocking an eyebrow. "Seems like they have a weird fascination with… well, faces."

"Maybe we have," Ava blurted. "I like your face. Um, I mean, being here and looking at faces, why not look at yours, it's as good as any other, except maybe a bit better, I mean, different. I mean, funny. No, I don't mean that. Actually, I mean nothing at all," she changed track, probably realizing what she was doing. "In fact, better forget that I said anything and instead pretend that I never spoke to you at all. Do that. Please?" Well, at least one of us didn't clam up in parental presence.

Christian, by now, looked as if he had to try very hard to keep a straight face. Quite in contrast to Danny, who looked like he was having an internal debate on whether or not to call the Court cops, aka, the guardians.

"You remind me of someone," Christian said, once Ava was giving him a fraction of a second to interject. "Put the two of you in a room together, and you could probably ramble on about nothing for hours."

"I don't usually do that," Ava protested. "You surprised me."

"Ava," I said, again.

"I surprised you?" Christian repeated. "Why?"

"I… You…"

Improvisation was needed. "You're Christian Ozera, aren't you?" I asked, feeling stupid. Ava amplified that feeling by looking at me as if I was an idiot.

Christian seemed to find nothing weird with the question, though. "Yes, I am."

"You are… " And that was about all my improvisation talents had to offer. I knew he had been noted for his magic fighting and for being something of a rebel, but in exactly what time he had been noted for what, I couldn't remember.

"You're doing offensive magic, don't you?" Ava piped up, in the game again. Well, she had always been quicker-witted than me.

"Yup," Christian said. Beside him, Danny was visibly getting impatient. "Are you looking to learn how to use your magic? I could help you with that."

Ava would have to say no to that, of course. For one, it would probably attract attention how skilled she was with her magic. Moroi in our time received much more training that they did in this time, and Ava was an apt water user. But more importantly, we had talked time and time again that it would be more prudent not to get too close to our deceased parents during the time we spent in the past. It would only create a mess, whether we got them back or not.

"Yes," Ava said. "That's what I'm looking for."

Now it was my turn to shoot her a scalding look.

"Just come to our newbie training some time," Christian immediately said, brightening up. "It's every weekday at five. I'll be there too, teaching."

"Wonderful. Can we go now?" Danny seemed to run out of patience.

"Sure, sure," Christian told him – a little testy – and to us: "Hope I'll see you there!" With that, Ava's mother's real and substitute lover continued on their way down the path.

Just like before with my mom, we watched a retreating back of a parent that we had just met for the first time. Things were kind of getting weirdly parallel.

"What got into you?" I challenged Ava as soon as they were out of earshot. "We're supposed to keep our distance, remember?"

Out of keeping for her, Ava looked almost apologetic, and I felt like a jerk for ending her first meeting with her dad like that. "I know, and you're right," she said. "It's just… We can't be sure whether we'll succeed in bringing them back into our own time. If now is my only chance at getting to know him… well, I want to use that chance. I want to spent time with him as long as I can."

I had to look away because the truth and allure of what she said hit too close to home.

"Can you resist it?" she added, pleadingly.

I thought about meeting Rose again tomorrow. The prospect made my heart beat faster. "No," I conceded. "I can't."

Feelings. We seemed to have failed to take them into account when we planned our historical rescue mission. It was supposed to be a surgical intervention – go in, swoop to the rescue, back out – and now it developed into a soap opera. We couldn't resist the temptation that our living parents posed. Maybe we would return to a future where we would get to keep them until they were grey and old. But maybe, whatever we did in this time, maybe we just wouldn't be able to change anything for our own lives. Maybe Rose and Christian were sentenced to death, no matter what we did.

Then we would get to know them, and lose them all over again.

* * *

 **This chapter had some more background information, I hope things are clearer now. Tell me what you think! I love reading your reviews! :-)  
**

 **Next chapter: One more parent to meet!**


	4. All Four Of Them

"Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

In truth, I felt far from ready. I was supposed to be a fearless guardian in less than three years' time, when I'd finish school, but as of yet, I could feel little of the daring and courage that was supposed to be every guardian's main trait. To be honest, the thought of meeting Robert Doru, the doom of two people known mainly for their skills in combat, made me come very close to peeing my pants.

In contrast to the Rose and Christian of the past – that is, future – we were prepared for the encounter. We knew what to expect, and were equipped to deal with it. Thanks to Lily, we both wore charmed silver pendants that should make it harder to target us directly with spirit. They wouldn't protect us for long, because Robert was an apt telekinetic, but at least they should stop him from compelling us in case he got the drop on us. More importantly, though, was the object that Lily had spent years – literally, years – charming, giving it every possible edge she could find. It was a long silver chain, twisted around an old iron bicycle chain to prevent it from snapping. When wrapped around a person, it should form a kind of bubble around them through which spirit magic would not escape. It was this chain that should render us capable of dealing with the powerful spirit user better than anybody else. And not be killed the way our parents were.

Our hope was that Robert would try to fight against the bond. Given that he wouldn't manage to break it, he was unstable enough so that the magical exertion might drive him over the edge. This way, he might relieve us of the duty that would come next: making him be found by whatever authorities were responsible and make a case for him to be institutionalized. I had suggested killing him once, but in the end, we had all agreed that that would be a crime just as atrocious as what he would be culpable of later. Because if was just that: he wasn't culpable of anything yet. At this point in time, Robert had not yet murdered our parents. So far, he hadn't done anything. He was, however, already mentally unstable to the point of total delusion. We might even do him a favor by having him taken care of. At least that's what I like to tell myself.

The silver chain was the backpack that Lily had given me in the last second. Thank god for her level-headed thinking, because without that chain we would have nothing to counter Robert with. Of course, the guardians had filched the contents of the backpack during our interrogation yesterday, but they had found nothing suspicious there, except maybe from a fairly large amount of cash. Fake driver's licenses identified us as Ava Miller and Anton Brodovic from the state of Pennsylvania, and only made us a few months older than we actually were. Fortunately, we had both worn our rings on our persons when the guardians found us. They hadn't bodily searched us, and if they had, royal valuables would have told quite a different story about us. As it was, the only other things in the backpack were a few spare clothes.

We stepped out from the guest housing building where we had spent the night to meet the last rays of the setting sun. If everything went well, we wouldn't have to come back here tonight. We would be back in our own time. And maybe – we tried not get our hopes up too much, because during the next twenty years that we would skip, so much could happen – maybe we would see our parents again there.

Until we could get started, though, we had somewhere else to go.

"Let's do this, then," Ava said. She sounded light and confident, but I could still detect the nervousness she felt at the prospect of meeting her mom in this time. No wonder. Ava and her mom got along reasonably well, but they had never been as close as I was to my dad. It wasn't because Vasilisa had been a bad mother. She might have neglected her queenly duties to some degree, and her never-ending series of depressions had made her presence weight down on her daughters, but she had never actually neglected them. It was more because Ava had always felt that she was missing a connection to her mom that Lily had through spirit. I think it was the comparison to her sister that made Ava draw back from Vasilisa, seeking closeness with me instead. And I had profited from the friendship with rough and spirited Ava. If not for her, I might have become even more of a loser than I already was.

I kept a sharp lookout for whomever we shared the early morning Court walkways with. I had yet to meet my dad. And even though I was a little scared of the feelings I would have upon seeing him, a part of me was longing to see him happy for once. Maybe the happiness of the past would be as evident in him as it was in Ava's mom.

"Anton," Ava said, suddenly. We had arrived in front of the palace, where we would meet the queen. There was a small square in front of it, welcoming visitors with benches and a large fountain. Two people were sitting on a bench directly in front of the palace walls, dhampirs both, a man and a woman. Amongst the other people who occupied the square, bustling two and fro as the working day started for the Moroi, they were a picture of serenity. They were huddled close together, her head resting on his shoulder. It was a comfortable resting place, because he was a good foot taller than her.

I recognized her even before I recognized him. They were my parents. The complete set, mom and dad. Rose Hathaway and Dimitri Belikov.

They must be enjoying the calm before their busy day began. Rose was the queen's guardian, and my dad, at that time, was guarding Ava's dad. With Christian Ozera living at Court and being as safe as safe could be, I guess he was doing Court duties for now.

I had expected my dad to be happier than I knew him. Even though it had always hurt that I wasn't capable of making him as happy as my mom used to make him, I had wanted to see him happier. But I hadn't expected this complete transformation. My dad was a guardian through and through. He hardly ever showed what he was feeling. Even with me, he rarely let his guard down completely. Maybe this was why I hadn't recognized him immediately. This man was radiating contentedness. His whole posture was different, his face, the look in his eyes, the way he held his head. The way he relaxed into her.

And I realized that up to this moment, I had never truly understood what had been taken from my dad the moment Rose Hathaway died.

"Anton," Ava said again.

I pried my eyes away from the sight of my happy parents to look at her. She was blinking rapidly.

"They've seen us."

She was right. Rose was looking at us, apparently saying something about us to Dimitri, because he'd just turned his head towards us, too.

I made the first step to continue on our way towards them, signaling Ava that I was ready to go. I made my feet carry me to them, even though my chest constricted so tightly that I almost couldn't breathe.

My feelings at seeing them were something else that I hadn't expected. They were my parents, and I loved them – at least for my dad, I could say that for sure – and I was seeing them happy. So I should be happy. But I wasn't. I wanted to turn on my heels, creep back under the covers of my guest housing bed and cry. And not only because I knew my dad was going to lose this woman whom he obviously held so dear. I had more selfish feelings than that. I was feeling utterly left out. Here were my parents, perfectly happy without me. In fact, happier than my dad had ever been with me. I had never been a part of that happiness.

Ava managed to take hold of my hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. Once again, I was immeasurably glad I had her with me.

"Good morning, young housebreakers," Rose called over to us cheerfully. They rose from their bench in a fluid motion when we approached them.

"Any break-ins tonight?"

"Only if you committed one," Ava retorted promptly. It suddenly occurred to me that she seemed to constantly be irked by what Rose said.

"This is Dimitri Belikov. You might have heard of him." Rose presented my dad to us with pride in her voice.

"We sure did," Ava muttered.

A smile curled around his mouth. "Nice to meet the two minors who managed to get behind every palace guardian's back. It's quite an unprecedented feat."

"It's a pleasure to have a reputation," Ava replied.

"Yours is growing as we speak," Dimitri laughed.

He laughed.

I had intended to say something smart, lest Rose think I had had my tongue cut out for burglary or something, but again, I found myself dumbfounded. My dad had laughed. It was an amazing sound, mostly because I hadn't been aware that laughter could come out of my dad's mouth. I can't recall a time that I had caught my father laughing. Ever.

"This will never happen again," Rose snapped at Dimitri with a glint in her eye. Apparently, our unexplainable entrance into the secret parts of the palace had been a topic with them before.

"I'm sure it won't," my dad said. "If only because every guardian on the premises will be too afraid of what you will do to them if their attention should ever slip again to even sleep peacefully at night."

He was teasing her. She took it lightly from him, but I have the distinct impression that if anyone else dared tease her like this, they would now be pierced by laser beams coming out of her eyes.

"Let's go see the queen now," Rose finally said. "You can join her for breakfast."

Neither of us would be able to get a bite down, but we followed the two guardians into the palace anyways. The grand entrance hall was all too familiar to both of us, and I had to stop myself from going the right way without Rose showing me where to go. I had to remember that I wasn't supposed to show my intimate knowledge of the palace interior.

"I'm not sure I like her," Ava whispered to me while Rose and my dad were busy handling formalities for our visit with the Moroi guy sitting in the administration booth. "But she sure makes your dad shine."

"I noticed that," I replied, sounding more sourly than I had intended. She gave me a surprised look.

"Come on," Rose interrupted us. She was standing in a doorway expectantly, waiting for us to follow. We went up a staircase to parts of the palace that in my time held Vasilisa's more comfortable and less stately meeting and conference rooms. It was into one of them that Rose led us. As it turned out, it already was exactly what I knew it as. I even recognized the sofa I would stain with raspberry ice cream in about a decade.

I didn't immediately see any occupants of the room. Then, a door on the opposite end of the room burst open and the queen herself marched in, followed by the dark-haired young man we had met yesterday.

"No, Christian, I can't just drop everything and go on a weekend trip with you," Vasilisa said. "Look, there's nothing I'd rather do, but with the vote for the Romanian partnership pending and all those new guardian appointments to schedule, now's just a really bad time."

Christian Ozera entered the room behind her, a wry look on his face. "Get it. Now's a bad time."

Okay, this was crazy. This was majorly insane. All four of our parents in one room at the same time. With us. With their children.

I was still wrapping my head around the insane completeness of our families here when the queen noticed my and Ava's presence.

"Oh, hi," she exclaimed. "Rose brought you in legally this time, didn't she?"

"Yes, I did," Rose said, pointedly. "And you two had better not try anything else ever again, or you won't be happy about it."

Christian recognized us too, now. "Hi," he said. "I didn't know you two were the master-burglars. Might have to reconsider my training offer, now, can't risk you becoming too dangerous." A smirk appeared on his face and chased the leftover frown from his previous argument with the queen away.

"So, you wanted to meet me?" Vasilisa asked.

"Yes," I managed to say. The excitement of meeting her might be lacking somewhat, but at least I was talking.

"That's really nice of you. Though I'm not really anything special. I just manage a lot of governmental affairs. Mostly the boring type."

I ventured a look to Ava and noticed that her eyes were trained on Christian, who had taken a seat on one of the comfy couches around the room. Dimitri had joined him there and the two exchanged a few words, whereas Rose hadn't left her post at the queen's side. She didn't trust us all that much, then.

I couldn't rely on Ava to do all the talking this time. I could only hope she'd soon give the queen as much as a passing glance, because for someone who claimed to have perpetrated into the queen's private chambers just to get a glimpse of her, she sure seemed indifferent to her now.

"But you're still really interesting," I started to ramble. "You're new and you're really young, and all the scandals around you, and, um, you're supposed to be a really nice person and we wanted to see that for ourselves."

"I wish you'd be a nice enough person to cancel a few boring appointments and go on a vacation with me," Christian called over from the sofa, eliciting a loving but impatient smile from the queen.

"I really wish you'd do that, too," Dimitri added, somewhat to my confusion.

"Why, comrade, did you two plan that as some kind of double date?" Rose asked suspiciously.

"Not at all," Dimitri was quick to reply.

"Do you two want some coffee?" the queen asked. "Wait, how old are you? Maybe some hot chocolate?"

"We're fif…sixteen, but we're fine, thank you." I remembered that our fake licenses said that we were both sixteen just in time.

"Okay," Vasilisa said. She helped herself to a cup of coffee from a machine standing on a counter along with a few coffee utensils and then motioned for us to sit.

"The queen is all yours," Rose told us playfully once we were all seated. A little stiffly on my and Ava's part, but that was made up for by Rose and Christian, who were lounging on their sofas as if they owned the place. I would usually lie on these sofas like this as well…

"What do you want to know?"

I really had no idea what we wanted to know, seeing as we already knew pretty much about Vasilisa Dragomir.

"What's it like being queen?" Ava asked almost timidly. "I mean, you're so young… "

Her mom smiled, amplifying the air of gentleness around her. "I'm not sure I'm being queen the way everyone before me has been queen," she said softly. "I'm the first one to go to college during her rein, for a start."

"But there are so many things you can't do," Ava said. The urgency in her voice told me that in contrast to me, she did have a multitude of questions to ask her mother that she had never before dared to ask. "How can you bear to give your whole life over to that? How can you bear not to be able to do whatever you want? To… to go on a vacation whenever you want?"

"No one can really do whatever they want," the queen replied gently. She was watching Ava more attentively now, almost concernedly. "And I'm not giving my whole life over to it. I still have a life. I have Christian."

Far from calming her, that comment made Ava turn to her youthful dad again with something that I could only call desperation in her eyes. Christian seemed a little alarmed to have a complete stranger stare at him as if her life depended on him, and rightened himself in embarrassment, shooting Vasilisa a confused look.

"Yeah, Lissa, your private life rocks," Rose interjected, even before an awkward silence could ensue. "Lectures, exams… more lectures… more exams…"

Lissa. I had never heard her being called that. Before I could ponder on what it means to live without a single person who would call you by your nickname, Vasilisa – Lissa – addressed us again.

"Rose has to go to college with me. She doesn't like it. Thankfully, she has next to no choice in the matter!"

"If your lazy-ass boyfriend would stoop to going to college as well, then maybe I would find my liking for it," Rose said, addressing Christian meaningfully.

"Sorry, Rose, I'm too busy to make time in my schedule to facilitate your having sex with my guardian," Christian replied sweetly. "But if you could convince him to visit you by himself more often, I'd be much obliged."

"Dimitri, you should visit more often," Rose promptly turned to my dad.

"We've been over that, Rose."

"Yes, but tell me again how Christian would make a complete fool of himself without you being present."

"He did not tell you that!" Christian exclaimed in alarm.

"Of course I did not tell that," Dimitri answered levelly.

Rose pouted. "Damn it, he almost blabbed," she muttered.

"I have no idea what that was about," Lissa said, addressing both us and the rest of them.

I thought I would never tire of hearing them talk about their lives – I had known that Rose had a college education, but that period of her and my dad's lives had never been filled with details. I had never been able to picture their life together. Now I could not only picture it – I could see it for myself.

"What are you two doing at Court? Are you working?" Ava seemed to be as avid to keep them talking about themselves.

"I teach defensive and offensive magic here and at some academies nearby," Christian said. "And Dimitri accompanies me, as my guardian."

From what I had heard about him, Christian did not really need a guardian to be safe. He was a combat magic teacher, after all. But it had been him who had died in Robert's attack, not my dad. I can still remember the one time I had asked him whether he had always been a Court guardian, or whether he had had any personal assignments in his lifetime. I had been six years old and not yet aware that Ava's dad had been one of his assignments.

"Two," he had said, and already his face betrayed emotions that were too much for his guardian mask to cover.

"What happened to them?" I had asked, blunt as children could be.

"They died." His face had contorted with feelings that spilled all over his usually impenetrable mask and it had frightened me so much I had never dared to breach the topic again.

"I do have to think about going to college, though," Christian groaned. "The academies want me to have a degree in the long run… "

Rose gave something like a yip at that. "You're deciding that now? When we could have commiserated about classes for ages?"

I almost laughed at how she was going from teasing him almost to the point of insulting him to wishing he had been there for her college years.

"And Dimitri could have been there all the time," Rose quickly said, noticing her slip. I saw Lissa and Dimitri exchanging a knowing and slightly exasperated smile.

"Anyway," Lissa interjected pointedly and turned to us. "What are you two doing? Are you going to school here?"

"No, we're just here for the holidays," Ava answered.

"Without your parents?" Dimitri asked with an eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Yes," Ava said without batting an eyelid. "They said it was time we got to know the Moroi Court, but they didn't have the time to go with us. So they arranged for us to go by ourselves."

Not such a bad liar after all.

"What do your parents do?" Rose asked. Such an innocent question for her to ask…

"Um… my dad's a guardian…" I was starting to stumble again, looking into her deep brown eyes and feeling her gaze on me.

"And my parents work for a Moroi administration office," Ava added vaguely.

"Well, guys," Lissa said, standing up. "I have this meeting to go to. Rose, tell… "

She gave us a glance. "Give everyone my love. I miss them all."

There was something she didn't want to say in our presence.

"It was nice meeting you," the queen said, turning to Ava and me. "I'm sorry I can't stay any longer. I hope you'll like your stay here."

"We do," Ava sounded close to crying. "Thank you for meeting us here."

I really hoped Lissa wouldn't see anything out of the ordinary for her admirers to be close to tears when they had to part with her.

Lissa stopped for a moment and gazed into Ava's eyes. I didn't dare interrupt this moment, and no one else either, apparently, because time seemed to stop for this moment that the mother met her daughter's eyes for once with nothing but warmth and no hint of regret in them. Then, the queen smiled and left through the same door she had come in through.

"Well, we have to be on our way as well," Rose said apologetically. "Dimitri and I have a pretty tight schedule today."

"We can still see you out," Dimitri added. They both got up, and Ava and I hurried to follow suit.

"It was really nice of you to have made this possible," Ava said. Again, Rose and Dimitri let the way out, with us and Christian following them. I was searching frantically for something to say that would hold them up – I didn't want to let go of them so fast. I didn't want them to leave – I might never see them again. But the more I tried to stall them, the faster time ran – it was like keeping water in your hands. I would not be able to avoid parting from my parents again.

So, we left the room, and we walked down the stairs, and then we had exited the palace without me finding any words that could have stopped them. But the sound of my parents and Christian bantering back and forth proved way too distracting for any coherent thought.

"Promise not to get into any trouble while we're gone, Sparky," Rose said in a teasing tone.

"How could I, Rosie, when I have no one to fight with when you're gone?" Christian retorted.

"Just be a good charge and make Dimitri proud, okay?"

"I would think I have other means of feeling pride, Rose," Dimitri chipped in gently.

"Hump, I just thought you might like to avoid a repetition of what happened last time you left Christian alone…"

"Rose, you have no idea what happened when Dimitri was gone last time!"

"Oh, you wish."

"I would actually prefer to avoid a repetition of that, though, Christian."

"See? By the way, what happened?"

"Rose!" both men groaned in a chorus.

"One day I'll find out," Rose said, narrowing her eyes menacingly.

Then we found ourselves in front of the palace gates, and I had to force myself to remember that we had other business to do than to chat with our youthful parents. Ava looked crestfallen, too. She had been watching all three of them with an expression of shocked silence, but especially her dad.

"We have to be off," Rose said, eventually. "We have a plane to catch. What are you two up to?"

"Um…" I said stupidly. My mind should be racing now, but instead it was moving rather sluggishly. The airport was exactly where we had to go. They might be suspicious if they saw us there when we claimed to go somewhere else… If we told them the truth…they might offer to _take_ us there…

"Actually, we have a plane to catch, too," I finally said. "We're flying back to our parents."

"Oh," Rose said. "Well, why don't you come with us? We have a rental."

"You'd take us?" I said the polite thing, making my voice nicely incredulous instead of inwardly cheering.

"Of course," Dimitri agreed with Rose. "You're very young, you shouldn't drive all that way by yourselves yet. The roads get busy this time of the year."

"We'd like that! Thank you so much."

I looked over to Ava, surprised she didn't join in the conversation. I flinched when I saw that she was too busy holding back tears to contribute.

"Just wait here a moment," Rose said. "I'll get the car and Dimitri will get our bags. Don't you have more luggage?"

With a brief glance to our one half-empty backpack, we both shook our heads. Then Rose left for the rental facility, and after Dimitri had remembered that they had left something in their apartment, he went to get it while Christian went to get the bags they had deposited elsewhere.

I turned to Ava as soon as they were all gone. Her tears, held back so valiantly, started to spill and within seconds her face was lined with wet and salty traces.

"I don't want to go!" she managed to choke out. "I want to stay here. I want to stay with him. I want to get to know him. I know nothing about him!"

I wished I could take her somewhere more private, but there was no private place on the busy square. I took her hands and drew her closer, but when she leaned her head against my chest, and her shaking shoulders made my heart ache, everything I could do was to hug her tightly.

"I know," I said. My voice sounded rough too.

"I don't even know whether he would _like_ me! We talked for three minutes. Anton…!"

I didn't know what to say. Parents loved their children. But would they like them if they didn't know that they were their children? Did they have to like a stranger that shared their genes but no memories? We already loved them because we had been wishing for them from the moment we could think. They had no reason to like us. We were nothing to them.

"Ava, I can't tell. But we're already doing what we can to get them back. It's all we can do to accept that we're doing our best. We have to keep our faith."

"I don't want to go back," Ava sobbed into my shirt. "I don't want to go _there_ again."

I held on to her quivering shoulders, listening to the sound of her breath hitching with her sobs. She was shaking so badly it was difficult to make out her words.

"I don't want to see her again like this. I've _seen_ her! There's nothing left of her! She's an empty shell! She used to be so _full_! So full of emotions!"

My arms started to clench around her.

"And I never even knew she'd been like this," Ava cried desperately.

Ages of knowing her, and now I had no idea of what to say. This was my best friend, but I couldn't for the life of me find the words that would make her stop crying. Her body was still whacked by mute sobs, and I was wondering whether the words that could comfort her even existed, when my eyes fell on Christian.

As it turned out, he was the thing that could make Ava stop crying instantly.

I hadn't seen him coming, but now he was standing a few feet away from us, two bags slung over his shoulder, watching us with concern and helplessness in his expression. He clearly had no idea what to do, whether to discreetly withdraw or to offer his help. The decision was taken from him when Ava noticed him, peeking out from under my arms, and with a small jump, freed herself from me and furiously started to wipe at her face.

"I'm crying!" she seemed to realize with horror, kind of stating the obvious.

"I can see that," Christian promptly replied, skating over his embarrassment.

"But I don't usually do that," Ava continued, her voice high-pitched. "I don't usually cry in populated areas."

"Oh, I don't mind," Christian retorted. He appeared relieved that Ava was taking a humorous way out. "You're dealing with feelings offensively. I used to deal with them by hiding in an attic. We simply have vastly different means of dealing with things."

"What made you hide in an attic?" asked Ava, whose hiding under my bed really wasn't all that different, with utter incomprehension and a slight hiccup.

Christian raised his eyebrow. "People don't usually make me say that."

I was instantly alarmed that we had missed something that should be obvious to us, if we had grown up in the time we claimed. But Ava just sniffed defensively. "People don't usually make you watch them cry."

"That is right," Christian stated. "And my parents turned Strigoi when I was little. People don't like people who do that."

Ava stopped sniffing. "I didn't know that," she observed with astonishment.

"Well, they did."

"That sucks!"

"Did you seriously not know that?"

"No. How does that relate to you hiding in an attic?"

The eyebrow hitched up again. "I might start prodding you as to why you were crying after all."

"I'm sorry. And I cried because… because I miss my dad. He…"

She faltered. I have no idea how Ava had intended to end this sentence, but in his presence, I would have found it impossible to finish it in any way.

"…died as well?" Christian finished it for her. She nodded, avoiding his eyes.

"I guess that sucks, too."

She nodded again, though this time, she did it with her gaze fixed on him.

I was starting to feel like the third wheel on the wagon when they just stared at each other, but just then, a large black SUV pulled up beside us, and Dimitri showed up jogging towards us.

"Get in everybody," Rose called out of the open driver's window. "So long, Sparky!"

Ava wiped at her face one last time, and Christian gave her a genuine smile that somehow seemed to sneak in amongst his seemingly perpetual smirk, and we got into the car with my college-age parents and drove off.

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 **Hey guys! First, thank you for all your reviews for the last chapter! Fanfiction refused to move it to the front of the list for some time, so I thought no one would even notice it... I'm happy to see that some of you took an interest in my other stories as well! They're much longer than this one, but I hope that it will eventually be as long as them.**

 **So, this was Anton meeting Dimitri for the first time. Tell me if you liked the chapter! Tell me what you didn't like, too, it's just as good to know as an author! Love you all!**

 **Oh, and also, I have as good as no internet access right now, so I'll be slow to reply to reviews, I'm sorry for that!**


	5. Dimimi

**Thank you again for all your reviews! Love you all and I'm sorry I don't find the time (and internet connection) to reply to them!**

 **This is my favorite chapter so far… It features not only Rose, Dimitri and their son locked in a car together with the topic of romance coming up (briefly), but also the interaction between Adrian and a toddler…** **:-)**

* * *

If Rose and Dimitri noticed that Ava had been crying, they didn't mention it. It was fairly likely though that they were simply too occupied trading remarks to notice.

"You should try a beard," Rose told him earnestly. "You would look nice and gruff with a beard. Wouldn't he look good with a beard?" She addressed us by raising her voice and looking into the rearview mirror.

"I would look ridiculous," Dimitri replied. In my mind, I had to agree, even though I had never seen my dad with a beard.

"And it would go so well with your strong and silent act. Please, try it! For me?"

"I would do anything to make you happy, Roza, but this would not make you happy for long."

Roza. He had a nickname for her, too.

"How do you know?"

"Beards are scratchy."

"So… oh."

"What?"

"Who told you that?"

"Told me? Why do I need someone to tell me that beards are scratchy? It's something you now."

"It's not," Rose denied. "Did you once have a girlfriend and a beard at the same time?"

"Rose!" My dad gave her a meaningful stare that I'm sure meant _There are children in the backseat!_

"Oh, comrade," Rose snickered. "I'm sure those two know what we're talking about better than you do. If you'd raise a child, it wouldn't be able to mention the s-word."

Hey, I could say "sex" just fine! My dad wasn't _that_ backwards! Or, wait, I had learned a lot about that in school…

Just as I was frowning disapprovingly at Ava, who wasn't even trying to hide her smile, I suddenly noticed the short break in Rose and my dad's banter. Then I realized how Rose had phrased her quip: _If_ you'd raise a child. Not when. They knew they could have children by know. Were they disagreeing on whether to have children or not?

"Where are you flying to?" Dimitri picked up the conversation again, turning his head to see us. Rose hadn't relinquished the driver's seat to him.

"Maine," I told him. Lying would be silly. They could see us check in. We were going to Maine, because Maine was where we knew Robert Doru had been in this time. It was our one clue, one time and place that we had been able to piece together.

My parents exchanged a glance.

"That's where we're going," Rose admitted.

Much as I loved my parents' company, I did not want her anywhere near the man who'd kill her in the future. I met Ava's eyes in alarm.

"Oh, really," I said, trying not sound inordinately scared at the idea of us sharing a flight destination.

"So, Maine's where your parents live?" Dimitri asked. I noticed them sharing the same kind of look we had. What was wrong?

"Yes," Ava confirmed.

"We're… on a business trip. Guardian business," Rose explained.

Suddenly, it hit me. I knew where they were going. Of course. What else would they do in Maine?

 _They're visiting Declan!_ I mouthed behind Rose and Dimitri's backs. Ava's eyes widened. This meant that they would be dangerously close to where we expected Robert Doru to be. We did _not_ want to get them involved.

Declan and his family were the source of our information of Robert Doru's whereabouts. His presence in their hometown in Maine had actually been the cause for them to move from Maine to North Dakota. Dec's mom, Sydney (I knew she and Adrian weren't biologically his parents, but for all that mattered, they were) had seen him sniffing around town, and she'd said that when he'd laid eyes on Declan, he must have sensed something spirit related about him. They all up and left not much later. They had been super-secretive about Dec then. When I was born and no one gave a damn about my alleged Moroi donor sperm dad, they eased up on it a bit.

The bright side of Robert Doru's sniffing around was that now they lived pretty close to St. Vladimir's academy, which both Ava and I were attending. We sometimes got to spent our weekends with them, and it's always been fun. Both because Ava and I always went together, and because Adrian was one cool dad. And we liked Dec, too, although he could be a dick sometimes.

This coincidence was not good, though. Declan and his family being close to a potential spirit fight was bad enough. There really didn't need to be more people in the danger zone.

Suddenly, I wasn't as happy about getting to share the ride with my parents anymore.

While Rose didn't let the topic of facial hair go for most of the ride, Ava and I lapsed into a brooding silence. This was how the drive went by, and it was only when Rose pulled the car into a parking lot that I realized that this could have been a normal part of my live: my parents taking me and my best friend in a car somewhere.

When we walked out of the parking lot towards the departure hall, I also became aware of how used to my parents' presence I had become. Sure, Rose was still a mystery to me, and I still had so many things to learn about them, but I no longer stared at them excessively, and I was capable of intelligent speech again.

Well, as intelligent as could be expected of me.

Ava and I bought tickets at the counter – paying with cash and earning a few looks, but a credit card issued twenty years from now would have attracted more attention – and we proceeded to our gate without wasting any time in the duty-free shops.

"I need a doughnut," Rose sighed as soon as she plopped down on one of the hard plastic chairs in the waiting area. "Did anyone see a Dunkin Doughnuts around here?"

"You had three for breakfast," Dimitri protested.

"That's why. I don't work with fewer than five doughnuts a day."

She left in search of a doughnut shop and returned victoriously a few minutes later, distributing the pastries freely from a bag that must hold multitudes of them.

Ava and Dimitri declined, but I took the offered chocolate glazed one with almost the same appetite as her.

"I like doughnuts," I said with a mouthful of sugar. "We never really have them at home…"

And then, the doughnut turned to dust in my mouth and I could no longer swallow one more bite of it. I had just realized the reason why my father had never let me enter a Dunkin Doughnuts or whatever else that served doughnuts: the indulgent smile he watched Rose with as she stuffed her face told me that this food was intrinsically tied to memories of her.

I forced the bite down my throat and surreptitiously threw the rest away.

Trying to ignore the growing awareness of just how much memories of my mom must have permeated my dad's life, I attempted to start a conversation that didn't revolve around doughnuts.

"How's college, Rose? You have to be guarding the queen twenty-four-seven, how does it work? Isn't it super-tiring?"

Rose started telling us about her guardian life, and I was hanging on her lips. How many colleagues she had, how they rotated shifts, what classes she and Lissa were attending, what their exams were like…

"For the most part, I actually like it," she ended. "I can have time with Liss for myself, just like old times."

"You've known each other for a long time, haven't you?" Ava asked quietly.

"Since elementary school. We've been best friends ever since."

"Like you, it seems," Dimitri said, watching us. "It's always nice to see Moroi and dhampirs befriend each other."

Our flight was called up then, and because we hadn't received adjacent seats, Rose and Dimitri wished us a good flight and went to take their seats.

"Anton, what did we get into," Ava sighed, leaning her head back into her straight-backed economy chair.

"This is not the way it was planned," I agreed tiredly.

We were both emotionally exhausted from the morning and I wanted nothing better than to close my eyes and sleep away the short flight to Northern Maine Regional Airport, but we had to discuss plans on how to keep Rose and Dimitri out of danger. In the end, we had to conclude that there was pretty much nothing we could do. We were only two, and we could not split up in order to keep an eye on the others.

"Imagine Dec now," Ava said as the plane prepared for landing. "He's a baby. Two years old."

I had to laugh despite my fluttering nerves. "Can he even talk yet?"

"It would be nice to not have him boasting all over the place for once," Ava said dryly.

"I wish we could visit him," I sighed.

"That is so out of the question."

"I know, there's no need to tell me!"

They switched off the seatbelt signs then, and people everywhere started to get up and reach for their luggage, only to then stand with their heads ducked down under the overhead lockers until the doors were opened. We found Rose and Dimitri waiting for us once we had left the throng of travelers behind.

"Have you had a good flight?" Ava asked politely.

"Well, it depends," Dimitri answered. He was rubbing his back and stretching. "It was short enough."

"I almost couldn't get Dimitri to unfold from the plane seat," Rose smirked. "The flight attendant had to help me pull him out."

For conveniences sake, I hoped I wouldn't grow quite as tall as my dad. I'd be perfectly happy with 6'3.

"How can you enjoy my pain so much?" Dimitri pretended to be hurt by her words.

"I don't, comrade," she purred, leaning into him. "But I have come to terms with the fact that you are simply too _great_ for this world."

"If this world could only _ask_ a man where he wanted to sit, the world and me wouldn't have any problems," Dimitri grumbled in return.

Rose gave him a warm smile.

We pretended to go to the bus station while Rose and Dimitri were going to get another rental. They offered to give us a ride to our parents' places, of course, but we wisely claimed that they lived in a town in the opposite direction to Dec's house from the airport.

All too soon, we were saying goodbye to my parents.

"Have a safe trip home," Rose said nonchalantly.

"And don't get on the wrong side of a guardian's temper again," Dimitri advised us. "No more queen-stalking."

They were taking leave of us as if we could meet them again any day. But I suddenly understood Ava's tears earlier much, much better. This was goodbye. I might never see them again, not Rose, not my dad the way I've seen him now, young and happy.

Ava had shuffled very close to me, so no one would notice her snaking her hand around my arm and giving it a reassuring squeeze. I was grateful for it.

"Take care," was all I said, before they turned and went to the car agency and we turned as well so we wouldn't have to watch their backs retreating again.

"I'm so sorry, Anton," Ava sighed when we could talk freely again. We went to the bus station, but we would wait there until we were sure Rose and Dimitri had left until we would board a bus to our actual destination.

"Why?" I replied wistfully. "We're in the same boat."

"They seem so perfect together," she mused. "Like they're made for each other. It makes you understand the saying _two halves of a whole_."

I nodded, unable to speak.

"I wish I could have seen my parents together," Ava said sadly. "It was such a brief time."

"I'm sorry we couldn't stay longer."

"It was probably for the better. I think we were right in saying that we shouldn't get close to them. It already hurts so much."

We waited for half an hour more, keeping each other company while both deep in thought about the past hours. Then, we boarded a bus that would only need forty-five minutes to go where we needed to go.

The time spend with Rose and my happier dad had kind of chased thoughts of what we were about to face out of my mind. Now, with only remnants of the feeling of their presence to distract me, a fluttering lump of fear started to build up in my stomach. We were about to willingly and knowingly enter the lair of a known murderer. A murderer to be, that's true, but we knew he had it in him.

According to the information that we had brought from the future, Adrian and Sydney had seen Robert several times prowling around the small town that they lived in. Apparently, he had shown an interest in their family, so they had decided to take no risk and look for another place to live. It must have been more than an inconvenience for them – they had made their lives, they had jobs, they went to college – but they were afraid that a spirit user might figure out things about Declan that they had rather not become public knowledge.

Lily's, Ava's and my theory was that Robert had already figured out what Declan was and what he could do for a spirit user the moment he laid eyes on him. We even suspected that Robert had actually been eerily close to Dec for a prolonged period of time, because we couldn't find any other explanation for how he had become so strong again, with the damage to his mind that had already been done by all the magic he'd used.

So, we were planning on lying in wait in Declan's family's village, hiding from Sydney and Adrian and striking when the time was ripe.

The bus let us off on the sidewalk of the little town's main street. We were in the city center, a cozy place where the few busy streets met, people went shopping or enjoyed their time in one of the few coffee shops that I knew Sydney must have been loath to part with when they had to move.

"A hotel in this street would be great," Ava remarked, turning her head to take everything in. "These must be the most frequented supermarkets in town. Everyone living here's bound to show up every few days. We could watch from the window. Less risk of Sydney or Adrian seeing us."

"They don't know us yet," I replied. "It's Robert who really shouldn't see _me_." Because I could pique his interest in the same way Declan had. "And anyway, before all, we need a few supplies. We should really have thought to take toothbrushes."

"There's a 7-eleven. Let's go there first."

We entered the small shop and prowled the aisles in search of tooth paste, toothbrushes, soap, and, I insisted, a few bars of chocolate. We were about to take our spoils to the counter when we heard a voice on the other side of a shelf.

"We do not steal from the good people of 7-eleven, little man. We do not go behind daddy's back and pocket …what is that, cat food? We do not engage in clandestine cat food smuggling. Now, if you could say nicely, dad, could I please have some cat food, then we might consider this."

"Cat! Daddy, cat!"

"I accept that as a request. Now, Declan, I must ask you to explain why this can of cat food raises your interest. Is this some basic infant need we've been withholding from you in a critical phase?"

"Cat!"

Ava and I looked at each other.

"So Dec can talk," I whispered to her, dumbfounded.

"If only about cats," Ava added, eyes wide.

We hadn't planned on meeting Adrian at all in our time in the past, much less with our two-year old cousin in the aisle of a supermarket that was only a stepping stone on our mission to disarm our families' nemesis. But when he stepped around the corner towards the counter, a waving toddler in one arm and precarious stack of groceries in the other, I felt the sudden urge to run to him and throw myself in his arms. Adrian and Sydney had been one of the few steady people in my life and Ava's. Whenever we visited them, we were welcomed, and there were never any tears, regrets or worries in their home that couldn't be solved with a homemade chocolate chip cookie. Our weekends with them had often felt more like holidays than the actual vacations with our remaining parents.

"I will leave it up to you to explain to Rose and Dimitri that we let them wait because I couldn't pry you from the cat food can choice. Is this your subtle way of telling me that you want a pet? I have to say, I'm a little cautious of cats ever since your mom turned into one."

I realized too late that even if Adrian didn't know us, he would immediately recognize us as Moroi and dhampir. As the only Moroi in this town, this would be enough to make him suspicious. His habit of living among humans was evident in his volume of speech: he was talking quietly enough so that humans would not hear him, but Ava and I, with a Moroi and dhampir's superior hearing, had no trouble hearing every word he said. We tried to blend into the shop, turning towards the display of cough drops that we had landed in front of, and waited for Adrian to pass. It was agony not to turn and run to him.

"You're going to see Rose and Dimitri again soon. Be prepared: they're going to gush about how tall you've become."

"Dimimimimimi!" replied Declan enthusiastically. For a brief moment, I had to smile while imagining a situation in which Rose witnessed little Declan call my dad Dimimi.

"Can you say Rose?"

"Wose!"

"Maybe not."

I risked a peek to see that Adrian was already past the cashier. He'd deposited baby Declan in the middle of his purchases while he packed them into bags randomly.

"Come on now, little man," he told the baby, picking him up. "Let's go see Wose and Dimimi."

Ava and I stayed where we were, frozen, for a few moments after Adrian was gone.

"Tiny baby Declan," Ava squealed, finally. "Who would have thought that he'd be so cute?"

* * *

 **Ever thankful for your thoughts on the chapter! And on Adrian** **:-)**


	6. Encounter

**Hi guys! Yay, I found time to post again! I'm sorry I'm so irregular with this, but it's as much as I can do.**

 **Glad you liked Adrian and Declan in the last chapter! I really enjoyed reading your reviews :-) Here's some more action for you!**

* * *

We took a hotel room on the main street and hung in front of the window like bored old ladies for the rest of the day. We took turns sleeping so as not to miss anything, but Robert didn't show up. The lump in my stomach had dissolved during the wait, but every time I thought too much about confronting him, it returned with a vengeance.

It was the next morning that finally something happened, though not what we dreaded.

"Sydney," said Ava, leaning out of our window on the third floor. "I see Sydney. She used to have long hair!"

I joined her at the window. "It's blonder, too. Blond hair always gets darker with age," I mused. "Except your mother's."

"And mine, hopefully. Hey, there's Adrian, too. Why aren't they walking together?"

"Did they argue?"

"They're Sydney and Adrian, all they argue about is who gets to make dinner. That's hardly a reason not to walk on the same side of the sidewalk."

"Hm… Is that Rose up there?"

"It is her. And she's not walking with the others, either. Anton… something's not right here."

"I hope they left at least Dimitri with Declan, I don't think Nella would be ready to act if Robert decided to pay them a visit."

"Um, Anton…that's Dimitri over there. Well, the tall guy."

We both withdrew our heads from the window to share a panicked glance.

"Declan! They left him all alone!" Ava exclaimed.

"What if they already saw Robert, and since they were already there, they averted Rose and Dimitri …."

"And of course they want to go after him straight away. Only Robert just might be a step ahead of them and use the time to take a closer look at Declan!" Ava finished.

For a moment, we only stared at each other in horror.

"But what if Robert doesn't go to Dec, but instead shows up here and they fight?"

"Which fight should we join?" I summed up what she meant.

"Here or Declan?" Ava said, panic rising in her voice.

"Robert hasn't had as much time to prepare as he had when… you know."

"The grown-ups might still be able to deal with him…" Ava continued.

"But Dec and Nella aren't," I finished.

We broke into hectic movement, me snatching the backpack containing the invaluable silver chain, Ava gathering up whatever personal items we had strewn over the room.

"This isn't supposed to happen yet!" Ava called. "It's too early!"

"It should be," I agreed. "But what if we already changed something?"

"With what little we talked to them, what could we possibly change?" We chased down the stairs, earning disgruntled looks from other guests.

"Time's a delicate thing, who knows? Maybe they told Syd and Adrian how we tried to sneak up on the queen and then the word sneaking made them remember that guy sneaking around. I think in our timeline, when they realized Robert was stalking them, there were no guardians nearby. They didn't have the option to go seek him out."

"Damn it!" Ava replied.

We passed the receptionist and poked our heads out of the hotel door. Neither Rose and Dimitri nor Adrian and Sydney were anywhere in sight. We shot out of the hotel and raced down the street. We knew only vaguely where Adrian and Sydney's house was, from looking up their address on a map, but we'd not dared to check it out with Rose and Dimitri there.

"Black Pines 27," Ava panted as we sped along the sidewalk. "Do you see the street somewhere?"

"It's got to be on the outskirts," I replied. At least physically, my guardian training had made me more suitable for races such as this. I was scanning the road signs all around us, and finally got a hit, when suddenly I barreled right into Ava, who had stopped in her tracks.

"It's here! –Ava!"

"Shush!" Her voice was a sharp hiss. "Up there, the man. Is it Robert?"

I didn't even wait to be sure. I grabbed her and drew her behind the nearest garden wall.

"Blast it," I cursed under my breath. The adrenaline that my body had poured out upon hearing the dreaded name made the blood pound in my ears.

"Keep it together, Anton, we have to do something!"

"He's going to see us!"

"He has no idea we have it out for him!"

"Our presence will make him suspicious!"

"He's not as strong as he will be, he might not be able to harm us!"

"He might still!"

"Anton!"

"We have to catch him now, Ava, if he escapes, we have no means of finding him again!"

"So we have to get him!"

"So we can't rush things!"

"But Declan and Nella!"

"I know, I know!"

We stopped hissing at each other like angry snakes and both carefully pushed our heads out over the wall. It was barely two feet high; we had to crouch very low to be out of sight, probably ruining someone's front garden in the process.

Robert was nowhere to be seen.

"False alarm?" Ava asked uncertainly.

"We have to go and see."

We exited Adrian and Sydney's neighbor's front yard – pretending that stepping out from someone's flower bed was a perfectly normal thing to do – and approached the house the man had been standing in front. I still felt my heart doing some extra beats per minute.

The closer we got to the house, the slower we walked. But we did advance, and eventually the whole house came into view.

A man was standing in front of one of the ground floor windows, arms crossed over his chest, staring at something inside.

I stopped breathing. Ava gripped my arm painfully.

Robert Doru turned around.

He wasn't like I always pictured him to look like. Everything I knew about him was that he had murdered my mom. He was the ultimate villain in my book. I had seen a picture of him, and his features had burned so deeply into my mind that I recognized him instantly. However, my mind had transformed his image from the photograph into something more suitable for his crimes.

In my mind, this man was a monster. The man standing there in my friend's families' front yard looked like a confused old man who had lost the way to his house.

Just as this striking difference between my mental picture and the actual man hit home, the man transformed in front of my eyes. A snarl appeared on his face. He drew his head in, like a feral animal preparing for a leap.

The gravel from the driveway welled up to meet me. Tiny stones flew into my eyes, my mouth, my nose. I raised my arms to shield myself, just as Ava did beside me.

"He's running," she shouted through the onslaught. She was already following him, running up the driveway and around the house. The stooped figure was ahead of us, wobbling over scantily filled flower beds and an abandoned shovel.

"The back door! He's looking for the back door!" I called over my shoulder. In the heat of pursuit, I barely noticed that I was outrunning Ava while decreasing the distance between me and Robert more and more. I rounded another corner, and skidded to halt just in time; it was a dead end, a closed door cornered between the wall of the next house and me. And Robert Doru was rattling at that door as if the devil was chasing him and not him the devil.

The chain. I needed the chain. I should have taken it from the backpack before we even started chasing him, what was I thinking? The chain was my stake, I chided myself. You always have your stake ready.

I was ripping the pack off my back, fumbling for the zip, while Robert was just as frantically fumbling with the lock of the door. He must have done something spirity with the bold, because before I had even managed to unzip the backpack, the door opened for him and he disappeared into the house.

Ava arrived panting behind me.

"He's in there, quick!"

We crashed through the door into a kitchen store room just in time to hear a high pitched shriek echo through the house.

"Nella," I murmured. Nella, or Daniella, as she was actually called, would have been the only one left to take care of Declan.

"Hurry," Ava cried behind me.

We followed the only possible way there was, out of the storeroom, into the empty kitchen, into the hallway, up the stairs to where more shrieks and voices were coming from.

We banged open the door to a room and found a scene of horror movies there. We were in a nursery, as a child's cot indicated. Daniella was backed against the wall in the far corner, a drowsy Declan in her arms, whom she must have ripped from his bed at Robert's entrance. Dec was just about to wake up – his wails were clearly soon to join the fray. In the middle of the room stood Robert Doru, one arms stretched out towards the child, the other to us as if to ward us off.

"The baby," Robert Doru screamed, his voice shaking. "Let me touch the baby!"

"Out! Out! Leave this house! " Daniella screamed, both at us and at Doru.

"Where's the chain?" Ava screamed at me, while I again fumbled with the backpack. I didn't get far, because a force I couldn't see crashed into me and swept me off my feet as if I weighed no more than Ava.

I landed in a heap on the floor, tangled up with the backpack and with Ava, who had fallen on top of me. We flailed around trying to clear away from each other, and when we were upright again, there was only a scared Daniella and a screaming baby in the room.

"He ran!" I shouted. And off we went.

Footsteps still echoed in the distance, and we wasted no time in following them. For an old man, Robert was fast. We rushed down the stairs, saw the front door flapping, and raced out into the street again. There he was, running down the street in the direction of the town center. We scampered down the front steps, and this time I scrambled for the chain before it was too late. I would only need a few seconds' running to catch up with him; I was a decent runner. The distance between us dwindled fast, but again, I was brought to a halt.

This time, it was because we had run right into Rose, Dimitri, Adrian and Sydney returning from whatever they'd been doing in town.

I didn't even have the time to gauge Rose's facial expression at seeing Doru, because as soon as I took in the scene unfolding around me, I was again attacked out of nowhere. Something pricked me. Okay, more than pricked – something tried to stab me with little pins. The street was rising up to defend Robert – or so it seemed. I knew he could move objects without touching them; this was part of his spirit talents. Right now, it seemed he was making every object in the vicinity with a low weight rise up and fly at us.

I swatted at the assaulting missiles. Tree bark, pebbles, splinters of bricks and wooden slats pelted me, ripping at my clothes and skin with their sharp edges. The missiles were small, but they could do some damage if they hit home. I tried to shield Ava, who had caught up with me too fast to be out of harms' way, and swung the backpack around to ward off most of the offensive objects. There was no way of looking around to see what Robert or Rose and Dimitri were doing, unless I wanted to lose an eye to Robert's avalanche. We sat it out, and after a few more moments, the onslaught started to abate. Slowly, I straightened myself.

Robert Doru was nowhere to be seen. A little ways down the road, Rose, Dimitri, Adrian and Sydney were reappearing from behind the same garden wall Ava and I had perched behind earlier. Rose and Dimitri were ogling us in a way that clearly told me one thing.

We were in trouble.

* * *

 **Uuuuh, trouble with the parents…**

 **Thanks for reading! Review me if you want me to smile dopily while reading my mail in whatever** **public** **places I find internet access!**


	7. Secrets Untold

We were by now uncomfortably familiar with the interrogation room. Chairs, lights and table hadn't changed from when we'd been here the first time. The only thing that was different were the people facing us. And the pressure in the room. That had hitched up a notch.

They were all there, all four of them again. Our parents. Ava had gotten her wish of being reunited with them. But this time, she wasn't even looking at them. She was staring at her hands in her lap, tears streaming down her face. I was sitting beside her in the uncomfortable metal chair, slumped to about half my size, separated from our parents by a plain wooden table that was probably designed to allow interrogators more threatening poses.

We had flown back from Maine immediately. Rose and Dimitri hadn't let us out of their sight for a moment. They had even taken turns to go and say goodbye to Adrian and Sydney, who now knew that they had to leave and look for another place to live. Only this time, they thought it was our fault.

It had been too late to do anything else yesterday, but the first thing we'd heard this morning had been a sharp knock on our door announcing the guardians that were to escort us right back to guardian headquarters.

Rose's face was so full of uncomprehending disappointment that it almost broke my heart.

"I just don't see why you'd do this," she said, her voice quiet after the many times she'd repeated it. "Nothing you told us has been true. You refuse to tell us your parents' names and addresses, and no academy has the names you've gives us in their student lists. You lied to us so many times. Why?"

She'd been angry in the beginning, but I guess Ava and I were such a picture of misery that she didn't have the heart to continue scowling. Also, I had the distinct impression that seeing Robert had unsettled her. Even though I couldn't say that I knew her well, I could tell that being afraid wasn't like her. And I had clearly seen signs of shock in her, fear even, after the magical attack had abated and Robert Doru was nowhere to be seen.

I was pretty sure of one thing: Rose had seen Robert before. And she was afraid of him, or of seeing him.

She had only betrayed those feelings in the first seconds of shock. Now, she mainly was genuinely disappointed in us. They had been nothing but nice to us. We were thanking them with leading a dangerous future criminal to their friends' doorstep and then refusing to give any reasons for doing so. We couldn't. We had run out of excuses. There was nothing more we could say.

"I'm sorry," I whispered for the thousandth time. I had never meant those words more sincerely, and they had never been more useless.

Ava's silent tears were still disconcerting to everyone in the room.

Rose groaned in frustration. The sound of her pushing back her chair violently and smacking the wall opposite us with the flat of her hand made even Ava look up.

My dad was still giving us a hard stare. Christian was more reserved, not letting on what he thought of us. Lissa was regarding us warily, but as if she hadn't irrevocably deemed us evil yet.

I had started to return my dad's gaze. Some people were intimidated when they felt his eyes bore holes into them, but it had never bothered me. His eyes were deep and chocolate brown, and I was wondering whether he would notice that mine had exactly the same color.

Beside me, two pairs of green eyes were locked with the same unconscious intensity. It seemed like staring was all we could do, having run out of words. But then Ava started to speak, her voice small but unclouded by tears.

"Shouldn't you of all people know why sometimes you just can't tell people why you did crazy stuff?" Her words, though soft, rang out loud into the heavy silence.

Lissa blinked. Rose stayed where she was, but focused her attention on Ava nonetheless. Ava just fixed the queen with her large, sad eyes.

"Rose and I both know that," Lissa stated carefully.

Ava swallowed. "This is such a time for us. Believe us, we mean you no harm. But we just can't tell why we're doing what we're doing."

For a while, both Lissa and Rose stared mutely at her, gauging her intent. Yes, they had both had times in their pasts when they had pulled crazy stunts that had been absolutely necessary for them, even though no one had had a clue why they were acting like this. Leaving the academy for two years had been one of them. Breaking a criminal out of a prison had been another, and it had actually been necessary to rescue my dad from his Strigoi state, though how exactly a prison break was related to finding out spirit's secrets was beyond me. Both our mothers had been in our shoes. But now, being on the receiving end of secrecy's silence – how would they react?

Rose crossed her arms over her chest. "Can't you at least tell us why he… why _that man_ showed up so close to where our friends live? Their safety is really important to us. He… that man was a threat to their safety." Rose had noticed how uncommonly unfazed I was by Dimitri's stare. I looked away and focused on her face instead.

"How he found them in the first place, we don't know," I told her, one of the few truths I could divulge to her.

Fear flashed again behind her eyes.

Suddenly, I just had to ask her. I had to know. "You know him, don't you? You've met him before. This man."

She hesitated, sharing a quick glance with Dimitri. "Why does it matter to you?"

That was answer enough for me.

"Because he's dangerous," I said. Disclosing details about the future here or there, I had to say _something_. "You should stay well away from him. And Ad.. your friends are doing well to move."

"Yes," Rose said. "I know."

The tone in which she said that made me pause. There was something else beside the fear in her reaction to Robert, but I couldn't gauge what it was.

For a while, no one found anything to say. We puzzled them, that much was clear. They knew we didn't mean any harm, and they realized we didn't take this as some kind of game. What I had said had merely served to unsettle everybody some more, but Ava's plea to understand our secrecy had touched a chord with them.

I guess in this time, our parents hadn't forgotten the little escapades of their youths yet.

"Look," Lissa said firmly. "You're minors, and except from sneaking into my rooms, you haven't done anything that warrants legal persecution. We can't contact your parents, and we can't hold you here either. We will not, however, simply let you run around unsupervised. You are free to go, but we will have an eye on you. I would also like that you report to guardian headquarters at least twice a day. You may keep your secrets, but we'll see to it that they don't get out of hand."

We nodded obediently. Ava's tears had dried by now.

"And don't get into danger," Christian added. "Because that's what usually happened in those instances where Rose here couldn't tell anybody why she was bordering madness."

Again, his eyes bored into Ava with a familiarity that made me envious.

Well, Ava could complain all she wanted. We might have spent a lot more time with my parents than with hers, but I could already feel her connecting with the Lissa and Christian of this time, whereas I still felt like an electric jolt was cursing through me every time I met Rose's eyes. And I wanted her eyes on me more often. She wasn't interested in me all that much. All she could think of was the security threat to her precious queen.

I tried to quench the jealously and anger that was rising in me when we left the interrogation room and Rose was already too busy with whatever else to even grace me with a passing glance. I could practically feel the contrast between Christian's concerned eyes and Rose's indifference trained on us all the way out until the door closed behind us.

Neither of us spoke while we trudged our way back to the guest housing building that we had hoped never to see again. We checked in, getting the usual awkward glances at being unaccompanied minors, and slumped down on our beds opposite each other as if we were marionettes having our strings cut. I felt drained. The last days had contained too many disappointments, too much excitement, too many failures. We had lost our only lead on Robert. We were stranded in the past with no way of knowing where the person was we were hell-bend on finding, and the parents we had come to rescue were left with the belief that we had brought danger to their friends. Things had looked to hopeful when we'd left. Now… not so much.

"What do we do now?" Ava finally pronounced what I didn't even have the strength to think about. "Robert's gone. We don't know how to find him. What do we do?"

"I don't know," I told her, not bothering to hide my exhaustion. "What can we do?"

"We have to find a way to find him! We have to find him again!"

"Ava, the man managed to elude authorities for years. How do you think two teenagers could succeed who aren't even born yet? I wouldn't even know how to use the internet here. It must be archaic."

"Yes, but we have to find a way. We can't give up like this."

"Ava, don't you realize what we did already? Dec's people have to move now. They weren't supposed to move for another two or three years. Our actions already changed things. We're making a mess. And that's all we do."

"Anton," Ava flared up, a sparkle entering her eyes that I don't know how she found the strength to muster right now. "We can't give up so easily! We came here for a reason. We came because we have something to fight for. Are you just going to give that all up, now that we know what we're missing, because our first attempt went wrong? We're still here! We can still _do_ something! Go back now and that chance will be lost forever!"

"Maybe _you_ know what you're missing!" I was already strung too tightly. Ava knew how to push my buttons. She had just pressed _explode_. " _Your_ parents are actually nice to you! With all your complaining about how you don't even get to talk to them and everything, but they're nice to you, they comfort you and everything, they're nice when you cry, and everything mine care about is that their charges are safe, safe from me, and they don't give a damn about me, and how could they, so how can I know what I'm missing?"

If I'd thought I'd get one over Ava with this, I couldn't be more wrong.

"You know what you're missing because you love your dad and the reason you came here wasn't meeting you mom so much as making him happy, and he's pretty happy in this time, wouldn't you say?"

She was glinting at me in a battle-ready posture, her hands stemmed against her slight hips and tilting forwards as if getting ready to charge me. Or as if she was a rocket about to blow me into the sky.

"I know it's hard to see them like this, but this is what you wanted and I know damn well that you're better than this, Anton, you're not going to turn your back on the one shot you have at making your dad's life better!"

Did she really think so highly of me? Oh, how I wished I could live up to her expectations. I really did.

"We're not going to get a second shot, Ava. We blew it. We lost Robert. There's no second shot."

"Fine," Ava hissed. "Take your ring, activate it, and go back. Go back and look your dad in the eyes for the rest of your life, knowing you could have done something. I won't give up. I'll save our parents, no matter what it takes. I'll stay."

"I'm not going to leave without you," I retorted angrily. Leaving her alone in this time wasn't even an option.

"Suit yourself," Ava replied. "I'm going out."

"Where?"

"To the training."

"Christian's training?"

"Yes."

"Ava, that's not a good idea…"

The door slammed behind her.

How had this gotten so much out of hand? I didn't want to fight with Ava. I hadn't meant to vent my frustration at her either, but that's exactly what I had done.

I didn't even have it in me to be angry anymore. I wasn't one to bear a grudge, least of all against Ava. Plus, I had started it. I didn't want to follow her to the training, all the same. I don't think that I could take any more of the sight of them, watching her bond with her father. Neither did I want to stay in the guest housing room and let my mood depress me. I gave Ava a few minutes' head start, then followed her out.

It was one of these days that felt longer than any day should be. We'd been in Maine just last night, chasing the goal of our endeavor here in this time. Then we'd botched it, flown back to Court, endured another interview session with two angry guardians and two otherwise not too happy parts of our parenthood, and been dismissed into the same old situation minus our one hope of achieving our goal.

I ambled around Court, not caring where I was going, just walking and watching the people go after their daily business. After a while, I realized that my shoes were especially out of place in this time. My jeans and my t-shirt seemed to be timeless, but my black h-boots probably wouldn't be invented for another decade or two. Luckily, everyone else had better things to do than look at people's shoes, so my futuristic choice of footwear went unnoticed.

I was still admiring this type of shoes that had white tips but came in every color when a pair of leather boots framed by a ridiculously long leather coat came into view. I did a double take when I looked up and realized that the person wearing the one piece of clothing in the whole of Court that was even more out of place than my shoes was none other but my dad.

"What are you wearing?" I asked him with an automatic tone of disgust.

Sorry. Teenage offspring will do that when faced with embarrassing parent attire.

Dimitri raised an eyebrow. "A coat," he told me flatly. The look he gave me clearly let me know that that much was obvious.

"Uh," I said intelligently.

"It's called a duster," he added helpfully.

"Hm."

"Are you okay?"

"Hu. Kind of. Why?"

"You look rattled."

"Yeah, I guess I am."

"Let's sit down."

"Aren't you on patrol?"

"Yes, but since you're classified as a potential threat, checking on you is part of my duties."

"Ha ha, real funny." At least I hoped that was meant as a joke.

We found a bench that wasn't too much in the center. Dimitri sat down, stretching his overlong legs out in front of him. I tried to find the appropriate distance between two strangers sitting next to each other but found myself awkwardly restricted by the edge of the bench.

"You're quite a puzzle," Dimitri said without looking at me. "None of your actions make much sense, and you go to extremes to say the least. Well, I know that kind of behavior from Rose. Takes more to unsettle me."

Had he just compared me to Rose?

"Well, I'm glad to hear we didn't disturb your peace of mind," I told him gruffly.

"Oh, my peace of mind is disturbed, and not inconsiderably so. Only not by you."

"By Robert?"

He turned his head to look at me. "What do you know about him?"

This time, I couldn't meet his eyes. "Nothing."

"Nothing you can tell me."

"Yes."

"How do you like Court?"

"What?"

"How do you like Court? If we're not going to talk about the obvious, then let's not sit here and twiddle our thumbs."

"Court is… uh…" A boring old-fashioned place full of stuck-up royals? My childhood playground during all my vacations with Ava? "… exciting?"

"It seems awfully familiar to you for someone who's never been here."

"No, it's not!" I said too quickly. "It's really new. Astounding. The queen, above all. Maybe I'm not so much of a royalist after all, though. She seems just like nice and normal person."

"That's what she wants to be regarded as."

In spite of Dimitri's return to normal subjects, my heart was starting to pound a little more heavily in my chest. I had slipped, and Dimitri's suspicions had been raised immediately.

"What's Ava up to?" Dimitri asked.

"She went to the Moroi magic training for beginners."

"Good," Dimitri replied. "I think it's a good thing for Moroi to learn how to defend themselves."

"Sure," I said. I had never really comprehended how there could have been a time when Moroi hadn't used their magic for self-defense. It was completely idiotic to let oneself be killed when one could torch a Strigoi with a flick of a wrist. But I had grown up in another time.

"That's another thing that goes down surprisingly well with you," Dimitri remarked promptly.

I mentally slapped myself. How could I slip twice in such a short time? I was getting too comfortable because this was just my dad. But I must never forget that it was a version of my dad who couldn't know everything about me!

"I'm really sorry that your friends had to move," I changed the subject, albeit reluctantly because the _I'm sorry_ line was getting tedious.

"I know."

"Are they going to be okay with such a short notice?"

"They'll be staying in Court for a couple of days. Actually, I'm going to pick them up from the airport in a while. They had to prepare a few things, otherwise they would have flown with us right away."

"Oh, wow. That's fast."

"It seems like you know as well as we do that speed is a necessity here."

"Yes. I know."

"Though I do not know how you do."

"I'm just sorry they have to break every tie they'd managed to build up there. It must be hard to be uprooted like this."

"I think so, too."

"I would like to tell them I'm sorry."

Dimitri seemed to consider this for a moment. Then he said: "Why don't you come to the airport with us? The car's big enough. They'll have lots of luggage, you would help with that."

"Really?" I had to take a moment to gauge the right amount of enthusiasm that a teenager not as uncommonly avid as I was to spend time with their parents would display at the prospect of driving to an airport solely in order to carry someone else's luggage. "I guess it would only be right if I helped," I finished.

Dimitri smiled. "We leave in half an hour. I have to continue on my round now, but you can meet us in front of the palace then. Rose will be there."

Rose will be there. Just like that, it was back, the feeling of the electric jolt about to come. Rose might not acknowledge me, but that didn't matter. I would jump at any occasion to spend time with her.

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 **It was highest time for some father-son talk between Anton and Dimitri… They will both be in the next chapter a lot, too, along with Rose of course. Guess what Rose and Dimitri's preferred bonding activity with their son would be… ;-)**

 **Love you all for your reviews and hoping to get some more!** **J**


	8. Black Nights and Car Parks

**Uh-uh. Last update has been two months ago?! That wasn't supposed to happen…?**

 **Guys, I am sorry! I had meant to keep updating on a regular basis, but then life happened and I didn't have the time to do it properly. This story isn't abandoned, though! I have a few more chapters up my sleeve, and I'm dying to write many more!**

 **As a quick roundup of what happened before (because personally, I _hate_ it when authors take so long for an update that I've forgotten what was before^^):Ava and Anton confronted Robert at Adrian and Sydney's house, it all resulted in a big mess when he got away and Rose and Dimitri entered the scene, everyone was really angry at the kids but they can't tell anyone what's going on, Ava and Anton have a fight, she goes to magic training, he meets Dimitri, very deep and emotional talk ensues, Dimitri agrees to let Anton join the ride to the airport where he and Rose will pick up Adrian and Sydney and Declan. **

**So, here's the new chapter… Hope you still read and like!**

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Ava was still in her training session, so I decided to forgo telling her where I went. I wasn't angry at her anymore, but we wouldn't take forever for the trip to the airport, so she probably wouldn't even notice that I had left Court.

When I neared the palace front square, I realized that his would be the first time that I'd meet Rose all by myself.

She was sitting in the car, drumming on the steering wheel and nodding her head to a whistled tune that I couldn't hear. She waved when she saw me and pulled her window down.

"Hey crazyboy," she greeted me. Whatever had happened to her between now and our interrogation, it sure had put her into a better mood.

"Hi Rose," I said. Apparently, my mind allowed me to speak now that I was a lunatic in Rose's view anyway. "Dimitri said I could come with you to the airport. To help with the luggage. And to say I'm sorry, of course."

"You really must be exceptionally sorry," Rose remarked. "It's quite a drive only to apologize."

"Um…"

"Well, get in, Anton. Maybe I can exhort some piece of information out of you during the drive. I can be pretty persuasive."

Maybe I should have thought about that aspect of spending time with her. But it would be worth it. I got into the rear of the car, still a little dizzy by the fact that she had just used my name.

"And there's my Russian worrior god," Rose exclaimed brightly. She visibly lit up at the sight of Dimitri jogging towards the car, his shift over now.

They kissed when he got into the car, folding his long legs into the passenger seat. When they broke apart, Dimitri greeted me with a genuine smile.

"You do realize that you are about to spend an hour locked in a car with a very curious Rose," he informed me. "Are you sure you can take that? It's not too late to run."

"I'll try my luck," I replied, taking his warning more seriously than he probably intended it.

This time, Rose was less chatty during the drive. The mood went down when we all remembered where we were going and why, and I couldn't regret more that I was the cause of that. There was next to no talking until Rose announced that we had to stop for gas.

We were still on the somewhat remote roads that made it hard for humans to accidentally stumble upon Court. There were a few towns nearby, but it wasn't exactly a metropolitan area, if you didn't count the population of Court itself.

The next gas station we passed was a little more than a small shack surrounded by shrubs and scraggly trees. Light spilled out onto dirty concrete as Rose pulled up next to one of two gas pumps. We were the only customers at the moment. To our left and right, blackness bordered, only disturbed by the headlight of the occasional passing car.

We all got out and Dimitri and I stretched our legs while Rose filled the tank. Dimitri was sorely in need of that, anyway. Again, I hoped that I would end up closer to Rose's side of the body length heritage than on Dimitri's. Being a giant really was a nuisance.

"It's gas stops like these that cost many Moroi's lives," Dimitri remarked suddenly. He was staring out into the darkness, a grim look on his face that I knew only too well. "When you have a charge with you, always check whether your tank is full. If it isn't, don't leave. Simply don't leave."

Had he lost one of his charges this way? I didn't know anything about the Moroi assignment he'd had before Ava's dad. Dimitri caught me watching him when he suddenly turned his head to me.

"You'll have some time to learn all this. Thankfully, Lissa managed to revoke the atrocious age law concerning dhampirs. Imagine. You're sixteen. You would have to face a Strigoi now."

I gulped at the mere thought of that. "I wouldn't last a second."

I knew that I had been trained by the best – namely, Dimitri, whenever I was home from the academy – and that physically, there was nothing that would have prevented me from being as kick-ass a guardian as he was. It was my mind that stopped me from belonging to the best. Or, as I liked to put it, it was my dad's constant fretting over my safety that had made me a coward.

"Makes you breathe easy after all the Court fuss, doesn't it?" Rose's voice came from behind us. She came to stand with us, looking out into the velvety darkness. I realized that I indeed took deep breaths of the chilly night air.

"Come on," Dimitri said to me. "Let's be off."

I followed him back towards the car. Rose lingered. She held her face up towards the sky, maybe watching the stars, maybe only enjoying the soft breeze that ruffled over the scrubs and trees.

"Doesn't she like Court?" I asked Dimitri.

"She does," he answered. "Only she-"

We both flew around as we heard a loud thumping noise from behind us, where we had left Rose. I could only faintly see her silhouette in the darkness, crouched down in a battle-ready stand. A large shadow was looming over her. Around her, the shrubbery was swaying suspiciously.

Then I saw the glint of a silver stake in her hand, and I could feel my breath turning to ice. Strigoi. We'd run into Strigoi, and not only one of them.

Dimitri was by Rose's side before I had even realized he'd moved. Whereas I found myself deeply rooted to the spot was standing on. I was frozen. I had to move! Fight! There were Strigoi here!

It had been one of my dad's most frequent lessons: never hesitate. If you see a threat, go for it. Don't freeze up. Don't stop to think. Fight.

Yes, that was the theory of it. In reality, I had never encountered a real Strigoi. Like most dhampir novices, I had lived a protected live behind Court and academy walls. The only threats I had ever fought were classmates or instructors. I couldn't do this. I wasn't ready for this!

Rose and Dimitri stood back to back, slightly turned so that they had each other's back but protected me as well. When the first Strigoi charged, Dimitri batted him down with a single stroke of his stake.

Stakes.

I didn't have one yet. I was unarmed. Which didn't really make a difference, seeing as I was too scared to even move a finger, but it made my skin crawl with icy fear even more. Two more Strigoi attacked my parents. I could survey the situation now. There was one standing in the back, apparently leading the pack. Two were engaged in a fight with Dimitri and Rose now, and they weren't so easy to put down as the first one.

Their fight was admirable. My parents worked perfectly in sync. They fought close together yet never impeded each other's movements. They complemented each other marvelously. They even completed each other's strokes: One created an opening for the other to use.

It was similar to the way I used to train with my dad. Partner stances, preparing for a time when we would encounter a threat together and would team up in a fight. When he and I did it, he was protecting me more than fighting _alongside_ me. The difference to Rose couldn't be greater. She was in all parts his equal, as much a warrior as he was.

Admiring them had almost taken my fear away. How could I be afraid, when I was with to gods of war? Nothing could happen to me. I was absolutely safe.

That thought might have saved my life. Because when I suddenly heard a noise behind me, my fear had subsided so much that I was no longer frozen in place. I turned and saw another Strigoi charging me, and I did not freeze up and let him kill me. I raised my arms and let him come, then warded his punch off, and gave him a pretty decent punch of my own. My fist collided with his undead but living flesh, and I found my mind plotting the next move instead of curling up and whimpering in fear.

The Strigoi gave a scream of frustration. Apparently, he hadn't expected me to fight back. Rose and Dimitri turned at the noise. It was Rose's face that captured me for a few seconds: there was a sudden panic there that had not been shown when she had fought only for her own life.

I couldn't dwell on the fact that my mom might just have betrayed that she cared for me after all because I had my own opponent to deal with. The Strigoi wasn't a particularly strong one, as it seemed. Plus, he must have been Moroi before, which meant that he was fighting with strength alone. I had tactics on my side.

"There's no Moroi here," the Strigoi shouted over to his cronies. "They're all dhampirs!"

So they had expected me to be a Moroi. They must have thought that two dhampirs out here could only mean one thing: that they came to accompany their charge.

My opponent made a grab for me, aiming for my head. It was the easiest way to kill a dhampir for them: just break their neck. I could see it coming and evaded the move easily, faking a punch to his left only to land a kick on his middle. The Strigoi stumbled, giving me an opening to get him again. But I was unarmed. I had no means to kill him, I could only hold him off long enough for Dimitri or Rose to swoop in after they'd finish with theirs. And as for now, they were pretty busy with the two other Strigoi.

My Strigoi crudely tried to land a blow on me. I managed to avoid every hand and foot that flew at me, but I didn't manage many more kicks now that my opponent was gauging my ability right. With the speed he was raining fists down on me, I was getting out of breath pretty fast. Then suddenly, Dimitri was by my side. Without saying a word, he engaged both my Strigoi and his. He had managed to fight his way over to me; Rose was still locked in combat with her opponent, and the other, probably leader Strigoi was still watching from a distance. Now, the spot beside Dimitri was mine.

He probably expected me to step aside and let him do the work. But now that he was with me, my fear had completely disappeared. This was how I knew it. This was how I had trained for years. Me and my dad side my side, facing one or multiple attackers. This was the exact spot that I was trained to fight in. And I flourished in it.

Dimitri held one Strigoi at bay with his stake, engaging the other in a series of blows. I immediately noticed the openings he gave me, but it was useless to give _me_ any; without a stake, I couldn't swoop in for the killing blow. I aimed a random kick at the head of the Strigoi closest to me. He blocked me, but that prevented him from protecting his side properly, and Dimitri's stake immediately raked at the Strigoi's arm. He'd understood what I was getting at. The Strigoi hissed venomously and doubled his effort to reach my head. I was now the more annoying of the two of us. He reached out; I kicked at his leg at the same time as ducking under his outstretched arms. Jumping up again, I left him in by back and swiftly barreled into the second one's legs. With both Strigoi distracted, Dimitri used his chance: his stake plunged deep into the first Strigoi's heart.

One down. The second one was now dangerously close to me, and I hurried to bring a few feet between us. Both my dad and I were concentrating on him now. I almost didn't have to think about my moves; with my dad by my side, it came almost automatically. Dad aimed at the Strigoi's middle; I made sure his fists didn't get in the way. Dad drove his stake into one leg; I kept his side protected.

Even though it felt so familiar, it was anything but. Normally, it was my dad who complemented my moves. Now, it was me who watched out for any flaws in Dimitri's defense. He was the offensive force – he had the stake. It was my task to make sure he survived while he took out our opponents.

It didn't take long for us to finish off the second Strigoi. Dimitri wasted no time in assisting Rose, who was now facing both her Strigoi and the leader, who had left his watching post and had joined the fight. I could instantly see that he must be very old and powerful. Rose had trouble keeping him away from her, and seemed to have her hands too full defending herself to venture attacks of her own.

When Dimitri joined her, the spot by his side was again taken by her. I stayed where I was, catching my breath and again watching their fight. Now that they were together again, things had changed for the Strigoi. My parents were much stronger as a team than they were individually. Their fight resembled a dance more than an act of violence, and soon the weaker Strigoi was down. The old one posed a problem, but I was sure they'd have him before long.

It was then that I saw it. Dimitri aimed at the Strigoi's heart, stake up and ready, while Rose kept the evil being busy. I had told him repeatedly that if there was one flaw in his fighting, it was the lack of body coverage that resulted from his sheer height. When he aimed at a high target, his legs were unprotected. That didn't normally matter, because when my dad aimed at someone's heart, they were dead within the second and couldn't use any opening he gave them. But this time, Dimitri had to stop his advance, lowering his stake instead to block a strike to Rose's shoulder. There was a moment when they were so close together that the Strigoi had to look up into Dimitri's face, and then he made the one move that could bring my dad down: he swiped a leg out around Dimitri's legs, entangling them and throwing him off balance. My dad fell, searching for flesh with his stake but finding none. Almost at the same time, the Strigoi renewed his effort to swipe at Rose's body, and this time he succeeded, because she couldn't stop herself from looking down and checking whether Dimitri was alright. The Strigoi swung out with his fist, and I knew that if that collided with Rose's unprotected chest now, it would rip a whole in her that no doctor would be able to mend.

I was already moving. My feet hat started carrying me to my parents the moment I had realized Dimitri's weakness, and it was a fraction of a second before I would have lost my mom before I had even been born that I flew into the muscled arm of the Strigoi and stopped the punch that would have been fatal. We both stumbled from the momentum that carried us away from Rose and Dimitri, tumbling apart to gain our footing. With Dimitri on the ground and Rose a few feet away, I calculated that I had about five seconds to fend for myself. Five seconds until my parents would rescue me. But this opponent was way out of my league. I had been lucky to survive the other two, but against this ancient being, I didn't stand the fraction of a chance. He started raining punches on me in a speed that defied comprehension, and the only thing that I could do was trying to avoid the most dangerous of them while retreating backwards, away from Rose and Dimitri, hoping they would follow, hoping they'd be fast, but I couldn't even see them, and just as my opponent's hand flew towards me, and I saw a slender arm wrap around his neck and ripping him backwards, all my hands were engaged elsewhere and his fist connected with my scull and all the lights went out.

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 **There you go… as soon as I'm back, I leave you hanging with a cliffy again. But I promise it won't be two month again before the next update! Until then, don't be shy with reviews!**

 **Still loving you!**


	9. Home

**Um... don't read if you're not into sappy stuff... but I just have to pour my heart out to you a little…** **:)** **Seriously, guys: This time, you just floored me with your reviews. Reading how many of you liked the family fun time fighting scene, or about you wondering about what's going to happen next and who's behind what and reading words like epic and queen (I'm female:) and about wanting to read more… Even though I never wanted to reduce anyone to a sobbing mess (sorry:-) , it's simply incredible to know that you're actually captured by this! It's unbelievable that you're invested enough to give me these reviews! Even though this makes me afraid of not being able keep it up in the future… I want to do my word magic for you forever!**

 **Anyway, what I want to say is thank you! Thank you for making me feel like spending all this time worrying about what word to use instead of say or searching online dictionaries for the perfect synonym is actually worth it!**

 **Okay, enough sappy crap. Let's just get on with the chapter** **:-)**

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"Anton."

"Anton?"

"He's bleeding."

"Anton?"

"Dimitri, get the first aid kit."

"The car's too far, there could be more."

"We need the kit!"

"We can't… Anton?"

I opened my eyes slowly, because they were in my head which happened to hurt a lot right now. I was rewarded with the blurry picture of both my parents looming over me, concerned expressions on their faces.

"Anton? Are you okay?" Rose asked.

I lifted my hands up to my head to check why it hurt so much, but Rose caught them halfway.

"Don't touch it, we'll put something on it."

"What's _it_?" I asked.

"A Strigoi first imprint. It's bleeding pretty badly, so don't touch it."

"Right," I said intelligently.

"Can you get up?" Dimitri said in a rough voice. "We shouldn't stay here."

I had to regain my sense of where up was before I tried to even lift my head. It felt really heavy, and I was glad for Rose's steadying hand on my shoulder. They both helped me to my feet, and once the world stopped spinning, led me towards the car.

"Didn't the shopkeeper notice something?" I asked when we passed the illuminated glass front.

"No," Rose answered. "But we'll have to notify the Alchemists. They need to get rid of the bodies."

Rose stayed with me in the car while Dimitri proceeded to pull the Strigoi bodies deeper into the shrubbery, so that no one would stumble upon them accidently. Obviously, they had managed to put the last one down after he'd knocked me out.

They had put me on the front seat with the back pushed down as far as it went. Rose was administering to me with a bandage from the first aid kit she'd taken from the trunk.

"I don't think a band-aid will do much good. I'm just going to press this on it until it stops bleeding," she told me, her brown eyes focusing on my forehead.

"Hm-hm," I replied. I preferred to just close my eyes and wait for the dizziness to pass.

"You're a good fight," Rose said quietly. "That last one was ancient, very powerful. You held your own for quite a while."

"Yeah, about three seconds," I groaned, my eyes still closed.

"That was all it took." Her voice was soft and beautifully velvety. "He'd have killed me with that blow you stopped. I can't believe you were there so fast."

I couldn't resist opening my eyes a slit. Rose's face was serious. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

I closed my eyes again, but I could still feel her soft touch where she was pressing the bandage against my forehead.

"The way you worked with Dimitri was admirable," she changed the subject. "It was almost as if you two had worked together for forever. I usually pride myself in complementing him this way."

I could detect no trace of jealousy or anything in her words.

"You'll be a good guardian one day."

Both the gentleness in her voice and her words made me open my eyes again. I met her chocolate ones surprisingly close to my own, because she was bending over me.

"Did you see Strigoi before?"

"No," I said. "It was the first time."

She nodded gravely at that. Was I supposed to be more solemn at the occasion? True, I had just almost had my head bashed in, but I had met Strigoi and I had not peed my pants, and what was more, I had prevented my mom from dying a very untimely death, even more untimely than the death she might still meet in a few years' time. My first Strigoi encounter was a cause for celebration in my view, but her grave face made me hide the smile that was rising up in me.

Dimitri came back then, and Rose moved to the backseat so she could keep pressing the bandage to my head. When Dimitri asked me how I was, I told him truthfully that considering that I had not expected to survive ever running into a Strigoi, I was feeling very well now.

It was only after we had gone a few minutes on the return journey to Court before I remembered why we had initially come here.

"But what about Adrian and Sydney? Who's going to pick them up from the airport?"

"Certainly not someone who's going to spill blood all over their suitcases," Rose replied swiftly. "Sydney has a thing about blood when vampires are present." I was glad to hear that the seriousness was fading from her again.

"I called Court and another guardian who lives close to the airport. They'll arrange for them to be taken to Court. Don't worry, Anton. Ava's informed, too, she knows where you are and that we're taking you back."

Ava. Oh great. She would worry herself to death with the knowledge that I'd been injured. Now I had a really bad conscience for not making more of an effort to tell her where I was going.

I must have drifted off then, because the next thing I knew was us stopping in front of the Court gates.

"You feeling better?" Dimitri asked me as he passed the front guards and rolled into Court premises.

I had to get my bearings first, but I soon found out that I could lift my head from the headrest without too much trouble now.

"Yes. I hope I didn't bleed all over the car."

"You didn't," Rose said from behind me. "I made sure you didn't bleed empty."

Her hand was no longer on the bandage, and it left something of a cold spot there.

"You didn't sleep long, either. We didn't have far to go, thankfully."

Dimitri pulled up in front of a building I recognized as the infirmary. The picture that awaited me there should probably appear sad – but it made a small smile sneak into my face nonetheless: Lissa and Christian and Ava, huddled together and hugging each other. Lissa had her arm around Ava's shoulders, letting her lean into her. Christian had put an arm around them both, drawing them all together. Ava lifted her head when she heard the car arrive; her tearstained face gave me a pang.

As soon as she'd managed to disentangle herself from her parents, she ran towards us. She arrived at the car before anyone had the chance to get out, and opened my door to immediately start off a flood of words telling me that I looked horrible and was bloody all over and that she was sorry and that I really did look horrible. I was glad to find that getting out of the car didn't pose any problems in the headache and dizziness department.

"I'm okay, Ava, I just look really bloody," I tried to calm her. Then I added, proudly: "I fought a Strigoi!"

"I know that, that's why I'm fussing so much!"

"I survived!"

"Thank god for that!" She holding me tightly, half trying to help me and half just clinging to me, and she pulled me even tighter at those words.

"I fought a Strigoi, and I'm still alive," I repeated.

"Oh, you want me to be proud of you? I'll be that, but right now I'm too busy being relieved that you're still alive."

"I was with Rose and Dimitri, Ava, what could have happened?"

"Anything could have happened! You are hurt!"

"It's just a little blood."

"We were really glad Anton was with us, actually," Dimitri interjected seriously. He and Rose were standing with Lissa and Christian, watching our reunion and apparently filling them in on a few details. "It was him who saved us."

"Me, to be honest," Rose added. "I was careless for a moment."

Ava pressed her head against ma chest. I think she didn't care whose lives I saved as long as mine was safe right now.

They all continued to make a fuss about me, and Lissa even offered to heal my head wound, but in the end, Ava and Rose simply took me into the infirmary and let a doctor stitch me up. I was dying to tell Ava all the details about how I didn't die in a Strigoi attack, but then again, it was really nice to know that she didn't give a damn about how brave or how cowardly I was, she was still my best friend. We didn't even need to talk about our argument from before. It was resolved without words.

I did, however, need to tell her one thing.

"You were right."

We were finally lying in our two respective beds in our guest housing room, and I was almost too tired after the long, long day to talk at all, but this one thing needed to be clear.

"We have to save them. No matter what it takes."

….

Of course, Ava didn't need long to come up with another option for finding Robert.

We met Rose and the rest of our parents again the next day, when they came to check on us in the morning, and again at lunchtime, and then I watched Ava train with Christian and his other recruits. They were brief meetings and driven by the busy routine of a royal Court and its members, but I rejoiced every time I even set eyes on Rose or my dad. Ava was clearly feeling the same way. Her only trouble was holding back in training, because she was dying to impress her dad with her skills in magic use. She still managed to put it as if she was making tremendous progress and definitely got enough of his attention.

It was the next morning that she sat up straight on her bed and announced: "I have an idea."

"Shoot," I said with a mouth full of toothpaste.

"Sydney's alchemist contact, you know, the one she told us about who helped her evade the alchemists. Marcus. Can you place in what time his contact network has been strongest?"

I thought about it. "Dec's two years old now, and he definitely must have been strong around the time of his birth, because that's when everything with Sydney's reeducation and Jill's abduction and stuff happened," I considered. "I don't know when he stopped being in the secret information business, but I guess now's a good time to try him."

"That's what I thought," Ava said brightening up. "We have to convince Sydney to make him use his network. I'm sure if anyone can find Robert, it's him!"

I caught on now. "That's brilliant!"

"We just have to make her see the importance of finding him. I don't think she'll be keen on contacting Marcus."

"We have to try. It's Sydney. She's always up for an adventure."

"Yeah, the Sydney of our time. This one doesn't even know us. She probably won't even be happy to see us at all."

"True," I conceded. "But at least we have a reason to want to talk to her at all. We'll go to apologize, and she'll have to let us talk."

Sydney and Adrian had arrived at Court with Daniella and Declan yesterday. A guardian who lived close to the airport had picked them up and taken them far enough along the way that another Court guardian could meet them and take them the rest of the way. It had been quite a journey for them, and so far they'd mostly stayed in their guest housing apartment to sort things out, but they should be ready to have visitors now.

We didn't waste any time mulling it over. As soon as it was a decent enough time for a house call, we stood in front of their door, bracing ourselves for whatever welcome we might receive from them.

"So."

"You knock."

"Coward."

"I'll take that over Sydney beating me up with a broom handle upon laying eyes on me."

"I'll just hope you'll be guardian enough to save me from her broom then."

With that, Ava stepped forward and knocked three times on Adrian and Sydney's guest housing door. Almost instantly, I heard footsteps nearing and the door opened.

Sydney didn't try to beat her up with a broom, of course, but the look she gave us when she recognized us had about the same effects.

"What do you want?" I had never heard Sydney use such an icy cold tone. Least of all with Ava and me.

"We want to explain," Ava said immediately. With Sydney, the intellectual approach was always better than a flat sorry.

"Oh, so now you want to explain. The guardians tell quite a different story about your willingness for explanations."

"Please, let us come in. I don't think you'd want to accuse us falsely because you didn't hear us out." My, Ava did know how to push someone's buttons. And here I'd thought I was the only one she could manipulate like this. Ava didn't need to be a spirit user to get her way.

Sydney frowned. I could see her need to treat us fairly warring with her need to protect her family, and I almost thought that her protective instincts would win out when Adrian appeared down the corridor with Declan on his arm.

"Sydney, let them in. I want to hear what they have to say."

Ava and I shared a look while Adrian and Sydney did the same. I don't know what theirs said, but ours definitely meant: _Not going to be easy_.

Sydney wordlessly stepped away from the door, a less than welcoming way of letting us in. We entered the small guest housing apartment and followed Adrian into a sitting room that was smaller than what I would have expected for a royal Moroi. I guess his marriage with a human still didn't exactly endear him to the majority of Moroi snobs and all those other jerks at Court.

"Sit," Sydney told us cuttingly. She would have been a good addition to any guardian interrogation session.

We sat. Opposite us, Sydney and Adrian occupied a small sofa that made them sit very close together. Declan was on the verge of falling asleep in Adrian's arms, not even bothering to give us a curious look. His parents, though, were giving us a pointedly expectant look.

"We want to apologize," Ava began.

"Not because we let Doru to you. He was already there when we came," I continued.

"Watching what was going on inside the house," Ava added.

"We want to apologize because he entered the house because of us. We chased him."

"And cornered him. He found a door and must have spiritually opened it."

"We had to follow him in. Uh, I guess this means we kind of perpetrated your home, too…"

"We apologize for that as well."

"And we're sorry we frightened Da.. your mother so much. We really didn't mean to do that."

"Well, we didn't want Robert to start a full blown dust attack on us either, but that's something we can hardly apologize for."

"But he was there before we arrived, and really the only thing that matters is that you know he's been there."

"And we are so sorry you have to move, but you'll get to like your next home better than the last one!"

"Hopefully."

We ended, and a silence resulted from Adrian and Sydney staring at us wide-eyed.

"Okay, let's sum that up," Sydney finally said, never long lost for words. "You accidentally ran across a person that happened to be watching our house at that time, chose to chase him even though you deem him a dangerous person, followed him into our house and almost gave Daniella a heart attack."

"And let's not forget," Adrian added, "you're sorry for that."

"Um, yes, that about sums it up," Ava said dryly.

"I so wish I could see your auras right now," Adrian said wistfully. Sydney gave him a sympathetic look, and I almost felt guilty for not telling him that he could use all the spirit he wanted now that Declan was with him.

"I can't make head or tail of you. Honestly. I'm at the end of my wits. And my wits are tremendously vast."

"Look, we have something to ask of you," Ava disclosed. I frowned at her. Things weren't going that well in the trust gaining department, and I wouldn't want to piss off Sydney when I wanted help from her.

"I know we're not in your good books exactly, but I want to be honest with you. As much as we can be, at least."

"As much as you can be?" Adrian repeated wryly. " _Almost honest_ still sounds like a lie to me."

"We won't tell you lies," Ava conceded. "Not everything there is to it, maybe, but no lies."

"So what do you have to ask?" Sydney pushed.

"We… we need to find him again."

"Robert Doru?"

"Yes."

"Are you kidding me?" Adrian was still sitting perfectly still due to the sleeping child in his arms, but his frown was angry enough to put a deep furrow between his brows. "Look, you two don't know what you're getting yourself into. I have no idea why you're after that man in the first place, but it's probably the dumbest thing you've ever done, and judging from what I heard of you, that means something. He's not someone you want to play games with."

"We're not playing games, Adr… Lord Ivashkov," Ava said seriously. "We know what we're doing."

"I doubt that," Adrian replied dryly.

Something dawned to me.

"You know something about him as well," I burst out. "Like Rose does. Both of you do," I added upon inspecting Sydney's frowning face further. Ava was looking at me sternly, giving me the message _Do you really have to bring that up now?_

"But it concerns Rose," I suddenly realized. There was something in her deeply disturbed reaction to Robert that could only come from close contact. Adrian and Sydney's unease was slight by comparison.

"You're not telling us everything, and we won't tell you either," Sydney said with a final tone. "So spit it out. What do you want?"

"We need your help in finding Robert Doru," Ava calmly disclosed. "You've been in contact with Marcus Finch in the past. We need you to contact him again, with a description of Robert and hints as to where to find him most likely. It's crucial for us that we find him."

Ava's words were blunt and hardly softened by politeness, but true and undeceiving. However, it was one detail that disturbed Sydney the most.

"Marcus Finch?" she repeated. She might even have been paling slightly. "How do you know that?"

Ava shrugged apologetically. "That's probably another thing that you better not ask."

"Better not ask?" Adrian repeated. The glint in his eyes made me fear that we had awoken the protective parent and husband side of him. That must be somewhere down there, and I wasn't too keen on getting to know it. "You mention the name of Marcus Finch and have the audacity to demand that we _better not ask_ where you got that information?"

"Yes," Ava unflinchingly replied. "Because we don't want to lie to you."

That left Sydney with an incredulous frown on her face and Adrian shaking his head in disbelief.

"Really need to see their auras," Adrian muttered. "Could be deranged or something. Have to ask Lissa to do it."

I wasn't afraid of that, because there was nothing to be seen in our auras. A little too much sadness in mine, perhaps, or a little too much loneliness in Ava's. But no madness, no untruthfulness, no deceit.

Sydney was rubbing her face with her hands. "If you know about Marcus, you might also know what a step it would be for me to contact him again. I haven't for years. I don't even know if I'll still be able to reach him. And even if I do, there's no telling whether you'll achieve whatever it is you want with Robert."

"Perhaps," I agreed. "But I like that saying a friend of me always uses, that we can do anything as long as the heart will hold."

They both blinked confusedly.

"What?" Adrian asked dumbly.

"They said that if you really put yourself into something, you will achieve it. I believe that."

"Please, Sydney," Ava said urgently, forgoing the more formal form of address. "We need your help. Believe me, we're aware of what this means for you. But we have to find Robert Doru. We have to."

"I'll think about it," Sydney said quietly, avoiding our eyes.

I could already feel the awkward silence coming. I didn't even let it approach within ten feet of us and promptly dissolved the meeting by getting up briskly and starting goodbyes.

"Well, then, I guess we'll be off. We really hope you'll-"

I was interrupted by another knock on Sydney and Adrian's door. This visitor, however, didn't even wait for someone to answer. The door was swiftly thrown open and Rose strolled in, followed closely by Lissa, Christian and Dimitri. They seemed to be in the middle of an argument.

"That's not even a real question in my view," Rose said. "And in anybody else's view who has any kind of sense in their body. You must be crazy."

"It's not a question but a matter of taste and you don't have sense in your body, you have honesty or something," Christian shot back.

"It's honest bones, I think," Lissa volunteered unhelpfully.

"It's any kind of bones," Dimitri helped out.

"You don't have a backbone, that's what you don't have," Rose continued.

"What are you guys arguing about?" Adrian asked as soon as he could get a word in.

"I don't think you want to know," Sydney cautioned.

"We can resolve that matter right here and now. Anton."

I jumped, startled at my name being called. Being drawn into an argument was the last thing I wanted.

"What's better: chocolate glazed or plain?"

"What kind of question is that?" I asked uncomprehendingly. "Whoever would go for a plain doughnut if they could have a chocolate glazed one?"

"Ha!" Rose looked at Christian triumphantly. "There you have it."

"There I have what?" he replied with annoyance. "I never said I preferred plain ones. I don't like doughnuts. At all."

Doesn't like doughnuts? Crazy non-eating Moroi!

"Oh," Rose said. "Who was it who said they preferred plain doughnuts?"

"I have no idea," Christian said exasperatedly.

"Now that you have finished your nonexistent debate, may we welcome you into our spacious parlor?" Adrian said grandly, probably to prevent the next fight revolving around the topic of why somebody did not know who had started the previous argument. His inviting gesture pointed to somewhere between him and Sydney wedged together on the tiny sofa and Ava and me still occupying the only chairs in the room, all the while still holding on to Declan. The little guy was waking up now. Not even he could sleep through Rose's entrance.

Luckily for him, he woke up in a room full of people who had no other intention than to come and cuddle him. Within seconds, he had been handed over to Rose's arms, where he started squealing a little, and then passed on to Christian, who sat down on the sofa and hopped him on his knees to get his good mood up again. He was soon surrounded by Rose on one and Lissa on the other side, both having successfully displaced Sydney and Adrian to take their spots. Lissa was perched on the armrest and leaning over Christian's shoulder in order to be able to enjoy little Declan's smiling face, while Rose leaned in from the side, half lying on Christian's lap in her effort to get Declan's attention.

Ava and I had gotten up, not knowing what to do with ourselves but not wanting to go without saying goodbye (which was impossible in the ruckus that had ensued). Sydney and Adrian had relocated to one of the chairs, sitting half on top of each other while the other one stayed free. Dimitri was watching the picture from a distance, a serene smile on his face.

"Say 'Sparky'!" Rose encouraged the giggling toddler on Christian's lap. I have to say, I was fairly surprised by his talent in child-entertainment. Looking around the room, I noticed that was a sentiment I shared with everyone.

"Christian, I didn't know you had that in you," Adrian said, reluctantly appreciative. "Can I have you as a nanny?"

Christian grinned. "When burp stains go so well with your artistic style?"

"He'd probably end up setting the curtains on fire to entertain him," Rose teased. "He'd be a pricey nanny."

"I could warm up his bottle really fast, though."

"He's two years old!" Sydney objected. "He's long out of the bottle phase by now. And the burping phase, too, by the way."

Declan squealed in delight at Christian pulling a face at him, and put smiles on everyone's faces.

"Liss, can we have some of those?" Christian asked jokingly. Well, mostly jokingly, I think.

"Oh, please, have some," Rose said enthusiastically. "We'll both have lots of kids and raise them together and my kid will fight with your kid and they'll all be Moroi and guardian one day."

"Don't you pass your quarreling habits on to any children of yours, Rose," Lissa warned her, definitely less than half joking.

"Don't worry, Lissa," Dimitri suddenly said. "You know we'll never have any."

For a moment, I thought he'd only said that because – even though no one had seemed to be aware any longer – Ava and I were still in the room, and we weren't supposed to know about the fertility of spirit-infused dhampirs. But then I saw the sobered look on Rose's face. They really did not want to have children.

Excuse me? And what was I? An _unwanted_ child?

No way.

They wouldn't let us leave, so Ava, who was watching a continuous demonstration of how devoted a father she had lost at the age of three, and me, who had just found out that my dad hadn't wanted to have me in the first place, sat in the crowded living room and listen to the group's happy banter. Not even Adrian and Sydney took offense at our presence anymore. It seemed like Rose and Dimitri's newfound trust in me was spreading over to the others.

After a while, Rose, taking a break from the still ongoing Declan-gushing, found me where I had withdrawn to a spot on the wall, feeling a little squished but out of the jumble of the others. A quite guardian-like thing it was, I suddenly noticed, trying to blend into the wall.

"How are you doing, Anton?"

"I'm fine. We're both fine."

"He's miraculous, isn't he?" she asked, nodding towards the toddler. "He's still so tiny. And he used to be even tinier."

"He sure is a lively baby," I said halfheartedly.

"I wish I could have one," she sighed. Her openness surprised me.

"Dimitri doesn't seem to want one." I tried to keep the reproach out of my voice.

"Oh, he would like nothing better than to have a baby," Rose assured me. I looked up.

"Really?"

"Family is everything for him. Having his own would be the dream for him. But obviously, we can't."

I knew that that didn't refer to two dhampirs normally being incapable of conceiving. What was it, then? The danger of what could happen to me if people found out that I was a special child? They had never really bothered with that when they actually had me.

Declan was asleep again when we finally made preparations for leaving.

"You know, in spite of you being such troublemakers, I think I'm growing fond of you two," Rose declared when we all got up.

Dimitri smiled indulgently. "Of course all we were doing was watching your every move," he said teasingly. They had all but forgotten that they were supposed to watch us.

Sydney and Adrian were still a little reserved when they saw us to the door, but Rose and Lissa gave us huge smiles, and Dimitri and Christian smiled as well.

On the way back to our own room, we felt the warm comfort of family and home slowly falling away from us, leaving us cold and isolated. When the hotel door closed behind us, Ava and I stood there and didn't know what to do with ourselves.

"Well," Ava finally said. "No one ever said it would be easy."

* * *

 **And I promise I won't always gush over reviews as much as this time ^^**


	10. Close Call

I guess Ava and I were kind of in limbo for the days following. With no lead on Robert, there was nothing really we had to do. We could have called it a holiday, but we felt far too useless to enjoy any free time.

As soon as the dent in my head had healed sufficiently, Rose asked me whether I wanted to join her and Dimitri for training.

"You're not half bad," she framed it. "A little rough around the edges, but what do you expect from a novice your age. Want to see whether Dimitri and I can't give you a little more polish?"

I just about dragged her to the gym begging for her to kick my butt. Honestly, Rosemarie Hathaway offers to train you? She doesn't have to be your mom for any novice to scream yes please.

She was kicking my butt though. Even though she would keep helping me up and then go through the flaws in my fighting in detail, I ended up on the floor a lot. Her abilities were simply so far above mine that she could easily reduce me to a panting heap on the ground while still analyzing my every move with precision.

"Up you go," she said, offering me her hand for the thousandth time. "Now, take care not to put too much weight on your forward foot when you reach out. It might not unbalance you, but it makes you slower."

I nodded, panting. I was already out of breath and soaked with sweat, when my beautiful mom had barely warmed up.

"And don't go out of your way to keep your shoulders down," Dimitri added, calling over from the edge of the training area where he was sitting and watching with Ava. "Ignore what instructors say for this move."

We got ready in the middle of the training mat again. I tried to steady my breaths, wishing now I had taken my running exercises more seriously back in the academy. I would have preferred not to appear like a huffing polar bear in front of my mom. Dad made me run lots more than my instructors at school required me to, but whenever I wasn't at home, I grew lax.

Rose danced around me, her fists or feet flying at me but not touching me. She was testing my reactions.

"Good." Her knee came dangerously close to my stomach. "Watch your distance. Farther, farther, yes, that's where you want to be with an opponent my size." Her elbow shot out, stopping an inch in front of my nose. "But be more flexible. There."

"Stop scuttling," Dimitri shouted over. "Make proper steps."

I had no idea when I was supposed to have the time for proper steps with the onslaught of attacks Rose was feigning on me, but I tried nonetheless.

"Better, much better," Rose rewarded me appreciatively. I raised an arm to wipe the sweat off my face and promptly received a softened punch to the side I left unprotected.

"And there go a few ribs," Rose told me with a smile. All the same, she disengaged from me again to let me catch my breath. "You should get yourself some running advice from Dimitri. Believe me, follow through with his regimen and you'll never be out of breath in a fight."

I peeked up at her, hands on my knees. "You don't say."

"Rose," Dimitri called over to her. "Your phone is ringing."

He and Ava ambled over to me while Rose went to answer her phone.

"Looks to me as if you just had your butt handed to you more times than I can count," Ava purred nonchalantly. "If I hadn't seen you with other novices…" She left her sentence trailing provocatively, but her smile was teasing.

"Be careful what you say," I teased back. "I might need to boost up my confidence." With that, I deftly pretended to tackle her, which made her giggle and try to get out of my sweaty grasp, shrieking, "You're all sweaty and gross! Get away from me!"

Before we could pursue this game further and chase each other around the gym, Rose came back from her phone call and joined Dimitri, who, I now realized, had been watching Ava and me with an indulgent smile that I associated with someone watching kittens tumble about.

"Pack up, comrade, we're needed elsewhere," Rose told him briskly. She'd already slung her training bag over her shoulder.

"What happened?" Dimitri asked.

"I'll tell you on the way."

Ava and I watched them leave the gym; we turned towards each other as soon as the two had left.

"Is it just me or did she seem a little out of sorts from that call?" Ava wondered.

"She's the queen's guardian. I guess unsettling news reach her all the time," I guessed, having had the same impression.

"Well, anyway. I'll go to my own training, now. Want to watch me, too?"

"Sure. Knowing you're holding back and still impressing while I just gave my best and failed here will do me real good."

"Who said you failed? Don't be pathetic."

"Don't be heartless."

"Well, what can I do?"

"Let's go."

"Anton. Do me a favor and get a shower first."

"Uh… good idea."

When I followed her out onto the Moroi training grounds fifteen minutes later, she was already deeply immersed into a water user exercise that took my breath away. Christian was having her and a couple of other water users manipulate water, holding it into a shape while making it flit around the grounds as fast as they could. Every now and then, someone's concentration would slip and they'd lose control over their bubble of water; then, a few gallons would go splashing on the ground, drenching anybody who had had the bad luck to stand too close. I knew exactly that Ava was feigning her lapses so as not to show her skills too bluntly, and I had the succinct impression that she was picking the spots where her control allegedly slipped very conscientiously; she seemed to make it her private joke to drop her water wherever some unsuspecting person was standing nearby, making them scramble but never actually hitting them.

She strolled over to me after her work was done.

"You should practice somewhere they want to grow flowers. Would save them the trouble of watering them," I greeted her.

"Hey, don't be cheeky," she replied. "There's some water left."

Christian joined us and we went back with him to the palace. It was weird – they all behaved as if we were family of sorts to them – only not the family we really were, but younger siblings or cousins or something. While we had initially followed suit with Lissa's instructions to report to guardian headquarters twice a day to make sure we weren't up to no good, she had dropped the request herself after my and Rose and Dimitri's Strigoi adventure. We had gained their trust. Whatever good that might do us.

To my surprise, we ran into Lissa as she was about to leave the palace. Since everyone who had something to deal with her usually came to her with their requests, this was something she didn't do often these days, unless it was to depart for college. She was surrounded by a few guardians – and a few more that I couldn't see, most likely – and seemed slightly distracted.

"Hey, you guys," she welcomed us. "Finished with training?"

"Yup," Christian replied, giving her a light kiss on the lips. She smiled. "What are you up to?"

"Going to see Hans. There's some stuff that had better stay in guardian headquarters, so I'm heading over."

"Now?" Christian asked, raising an eyebrow. "It's getting late, don't you think? And didn't you want to discuss Lehigh arrangements with Rose tonight, too?"

"So?"

"So am I going to bed alone tonight?"

"Not if you wait up."

"Minors present," Ava interjected quickly. "Please don't talk about you two going to bed." Yeah, I'd be uncomfortable too if it was my parents.

Lissa laughed. "Sorry. Well, I'll just be half an hour and then I'm back. And – shut your ears, minors – I'm all yours because Rose said she had business for Sydney to do and might be out till tomorrow."

I frowned. "Business for Sydney?" I asked suspiciously. I could practically see Ava's ears prick up – she'd had the same thought as I'd had.

"She didn't say much about it," Lissa shrugged. "I just guessed it had to do something with their moving to North Dakota."

"Um… why would that be so urgent?" I pressed. I had a terrible notion that already made my stomach grow cold, even though my mind still repeated, _they're just on a normal errand, it's nothing to do with Robert_ …

"Since when do you keep track of what Rose does in her free time?" Christian asked, his cocked eyebrow now directed at us.

"I… " Really, now wasn't the time to play coy with what I knew about Rose. I was worried. "Look, can we… um… could I possibly call Sydney from your phone?" I didn't own a phone – none which wouldn't be two decades' worth of technological development ahead of the time – and I simply needed to know what Rose was up to. Right this second. Next to me, Ava shifted nervously.

"Um…" Lissa looked insecure for a moment. "Sure. There you go." She handed me her phone. Her normal one, not the one she used for official supersecret Court and government affairs.

I found Sydney's number and only heard my own heart pumping while I was waiting for her to pick up.

"Yes?" She finally answered.

"Sydney?"

"Anton? Is that you? You're definitely not Lissa."

"Yes, it's me. Sorry for bothering you. It's just that I just heard that Rose was out on business for you and I just… I just wanted to make sure it's got nothing to do with… what we talked about. Please tell me it has nothing to do with that."

Lissa and Christian were eyeing me suspiciously, whilst Ava stared at me so hard she might be trying to listen in on our conversation. Maybe she was.

"Anton…" Sydney began, but then stopped herself. I could hear the hum of a driving car in the background at her end. Then she continued. "This has nothing to do with you. Please, Anton. Don't butt in."

She could as well have emptied a bucket of ice water over my head. "No," I whispered, horrified. "You got a lead and you told _her_?" _You told my mom the whereabouts of her murderer so she could go look for him?_

"I really don't see how this is any of your business," Sydney told me coldly, but there was a hint of doubt in her voice. She had no idea what she was doing. Neither had I, for that matter, but I knew it couldn't be good.

"Where did she send her?" Ava cut in sharply. She had cottoned on immediately.

"Send her?" Sydney had heard her through the phone. She sounded uncomfortable now.

"Sydney," I said, trying to sound as urgent as I could, trying to make her understand. "Where did she go? Are you with her?"

"Look, we're going to deal with this. We're much better equipped to do this than you, Anton. I don't know what your deal with Robert is, but I don't think you should be the one dealing with him when there are trained guardians around to do it. Rose and Dimitri will handle him. Trust me."

Dimitri was with them, too? Of course he would be. Damn it.

"And I don't know what _Rose's_ deal with him is, but there are things she doesn't know, and if there's one thing I'm sure of then it's that she is the last person who should ever have to deal with Robert. Sydney, please!" I sounded desperate, and Lissa and Christian were watching me with increasing apprehension, but I had to make her understand. "Please, stop her!"

"What does he want?" I heard Rose's voice, faintly in the background. Then: "Turn right here, we're almost there. I recognize this." Sydney ignored her.

"This is not your business. Stay out of this, Anton."

Then she hung up on me. She simply hung up on me.

I looked up to meet Ava's terror-filled eyes.

"She went to meet him? They went to meet him?"

I could only nod, mutely.

"What's up with you two?" Christian suddenly exclaimed. He and Lissa must be really fed up with not knowing what was going on. "What are you talking about?"

"We have to follow them!" Ava cried, completely ignoring him for the first time ever. She was prancing up and down on the tip of her feet. "This could be our second chance. We have to find out where they are!"

I was equally as twitchy. "I think I have a hint," I answered, my mind still turning. "I heard Rose saying she'd been there before. They can't have been on the way for longer than one hour, probably less. So we're looking for a destination within about a one-hour drive that Rose has been to, but not frequently. Where could that be?" I turned to Lissa and Christian, who by now stared at us as if they were debating whether or not Ava and I had finally gone completely insane.

"What. Are. You. Talking about?" Christian growled menacingly.

"Lissa, Christian, listen," Ava told them both firmly. "Rose and Dimitri are about to run into a very dangerous situation that they are not prepared for. We have to stop them. We have to be there before something bad can happen. Please, you need to help us. You have to trust us on this. We _have_ to find them."

"And we're just going to have to take your word for it, don't we?" Christian snorted. "As always."

"Christian," Lissa interjected. "Their auras look genuine. I think they're really afraid."

Afraid? Yes, that just about summed it up.

"Rose hasn't been out of Court much by car, except when we're going to college and back," Lissa thought out loud. "She knows everything that's on that route very well. There are only a few main roads that lead away from here. Other than the one to college, I guess… about one hour from here…"

"The greenhouse," Christian jumped in. He was still scowling, but he trusted Lissa's judgement more than ours. "Where Sonya's wedding was. It's about one hour. And Rose has been there only once before."

"You're right," Lissa agreed. "That could be it. Of course, it could be other places, but I don't know about anything else."

"We have to try it," I immediately said. Turning to Ava, I again met her scared but determined gaze. She was brimming with action.

"You want to follow them," Lissa said. It wasn't a question.

"We have to," I replied. I was getting nervous for real now. We didn't have any time to waste. We needed to get a car. Now.

"Are we on board with that?" Christian quietly consulted with his girlfriend.

Lissa nodded. "Yes. We've done crazier thing. Let's get a car."

"Wait. You want to come?"

Now even Lissa gave us a hard stare. "You just told us that Rose and Dimitri were in danger. What do you expect us to do? Wait here and twiddle our thumbs?"

"No way," Ava flat-out refused. "Now way."

" _Now_ you're acting demented," Christian almost snickered. With that, Ava's parents just up and took off over the palace green, followed by several queen's guardians. We could no nothing but jog along behind them.

"Two guardians," Lissa said over her shoulder. "That has to be enough." That meant she was telling her other loyal shadows not to bother coming. They didn't look happy. Thankfully, they had kept distance enough during our discussion not to have heard everything, but now they were slightly confused as to why their charge the queen suddenly had the urge to jump into one of the many guardian SUV's parked at guardian headquarters and usher all but two of her guardians away.

"You know the way to that little town we attended the wedding at a few years ago?" Lissa asked the guardian who had ended up in the driver's seat. Lissa herself was in the back. Ava and I managed to squeeze beside her while Christian jumped into the passenger's seat. Another guardian hurriedly took position in an extra seat where I would have expected the trunk.

Our driver did, and so our motley group went on our merry way. We were still tugging at seatbelts and each other when we passed the Court gates, and were rolling along a countryside highway in no time. We still had to sort things out, though.

"So, Anton, Ava, what do you think will happen to Rose and Dimitri?" Lissa asked, trying collect herself. "You mentioned Robert. Did you mean Robert Doru? Does this have to do with what happened in Maine? Why do you think he's dangerous? When I met him, he was just a deranged old man."

"You've met him?" I repeated incredulously. I hadn't known that Robert had had any connections to our parents. Before he killed them, that is.

"It was long ago. He was the one who told me how to restore a Strigoi back to its original state."

Both Ava and I stared at her, mouth agape. "You learned that from _him_?" Ava asked in disbelief.

"Well, I had to know from somewhere," she told us impatiently.

The man who would later kill my mom had helped get my dad back to being my dad. He'd helped her save her husband, then he'd killed her. Was I missing a connection there? Had he regretted saving my dad? Why kill her, then? This didn't make sense!

Once everybody gave up on getting information of any sort, the drive went by in a keyed up silence until we neared the location where we hoped we'd find Dimitri and Rose.

"This town has a fairly high rate of Moroi inhabitants, doesn't it?" Ava asked, looking out of the window as we slowly cruised through the pre-dawn streets. Indeed, a good amount of people still populated the sidewalks, suggesting that those belonged to the nocturnal sort like us.

"How are we going to find them here?" Lissa asked, glancing around. "They could be within miles from here, we can't be sure they're here exactly."

"We'll just have to look for then," I reluctantly admitted.

Ava bit her lip pensively. "Should we split up?"

I was sure she wasn't actually thinking of enhancing our chances of finding anyone rather than finding a way of putting Lissa and Christian out of harm's way, but before I could even finish that though, both Christian and Lissa's two guardians replied in unison: "No."

To our relief, the sun was beginning to come up over the horizon already. Moroi mixed with human early birds, and shops and cafés were beginning to open. The dawn made one thing much less dangerous: we would not be running into any Strigoi out in the open. I saw the guardians visibly relax upon realizing how light it was already. Well, relax is never the proper word for a guardian on duty; but they reduced their tension from ready-to-snap-in-half to about ready-to-confront-a-Siberian-tiger-at-no-notice.

"I don't think we'll have any luck here," Ava announced. "It's too populated. Robert is much more likely to be somewhere more remote."

"Right," I agreed. "Any clues as to where to go then?" My nerves were fluttering again. Damn me for being such a coward!

"Let's just keep driving around."

"I think we just got our clue," Lissa quietly said. She was twisting to look behind our car. Her hair flew at my face as she swiveled around. "This is their car back there. An SUV with a Court guardian license plate. It must be theirs."

The car wasn't parked in as remote an area as we would have expected, but in a street exiting the small town. We stopped a short way ahead of it and got out. Ava's and my steps immediately turned towards where the road wound out of the town and into the countryside, houses and buildings scattering more and more until there was merely a grassy shoulder bordering a sparse forest.

My hand went up my shoulder to find the straps of the backpack holding the treasured silver spirit chain that would be our only hope in a fight with Robert – and found nothing. Impossibly, my heart rate went up into previously unknown frequencies.

I hadn't taken the pack with me.

How could I, in an hour-long drive, not have remembered that I hadn't thought to bring my one and only weapon with me?

Ava saw the motion. She didn't seem surprised. In contrast to me, she hadn't forgotten about the silver chain.

"There was no time. We're going to have to manage without it."

"But… Ava!" I had trouble not to let my voice show how scared I was. "How can we even hope…"

"We don't. We're here to prevent Rose and Robert from meeting in a dangerous way. This will not be the day we defeat him."

How confidently she said that. She made it sound as if it was going to be a walk in the park.

I took a deep breath, tried to steady by breathing. Tried to soak Ava's calm and collectedness into myself.

Then, a crash resounded in the silent morning atmosphere.

I stopped in my tracks, listening. It had come from a few hundred feet in front of us, from somewhere within the woods bordering the road where it exited town. It was impossible to see anything through the trees, but the noise was still echoing in my ears. Without wasting time, I broke into a run.

As soon as the suburban concrete turned into woodland, my progress was severely hindered by twigs and underbrush. I knew I'd scrape my face bloody stomping right through the middle, but I didn't care. I heard Ava close behind me; she was able to keep up with me hindered as I was, as were Christian, Lissa and the guardians. What those guys had to go through with their charge running right into the middle of a god knows what kind of danger I had no idea, and I even found the time to be sorry for them. Guardian headquarters would not be happy with this.

We didn't have to fight through the copse for long. A small footpath met our path from the side, probably from the backyards of one of the last houses in town. As soon as I had stepped on this path, I could see the whole scenery enfolding in front of me.

The path led to a small clearing containing a wooden hut of sorts, a shelter for hikers perhaps. In front of the shed, Robert had drawn himself up to his full size of maybe five feet, looking like an impersonation of King Lear at the height of madness. On the other side of the clearing, Rose and Dimitri stood, defenseless, hiding Sydney and Adrian behind them.

Now, you'll find that is not often you'll see two fully trained guardians, and such guardians as my parents nonetheless, utterly and completely helpless. They're trained to fight. They're trained to defend. But against a foe of Robert's caliber, there was little that guardians like my mom and dad had to offer.

Robert made the shed come apart and attack them. The building shook, wooden planks coming loose, nails and splinters and all. It was like our confrontation in Maine, only now it weren't only small stones flying around. I watched aghast as a whole board detached itself from the side of the house and started tumbling towards my parents. They evaded it, but were pelted with lots and lots of small debris from the shed.

This was as far as I could assess the situation before two things happened at once. The most noticeable was the wall of fire that suddenly sprang up between Robert and my crouching parents. The second, less visible, was a puddle forming under Robert's feet, making him wobble and lose his grip on his magic for a sec – Ava and Christian had stepped in.

Far from being glad for the rescue, Rose and Dimitri's faces showed only horror at seeing us. They didn't want any of us in harm's way, just as we didn't want them to get hurt.

"Get out of here!" Rose yelled in a break between the noise of crashing wood.

Now that Robert had seen us, he included us in his furious quest to squish everybody under a tree trunk. His telekinetic powers were incredible. He took that hut apart as if it was made from matches and not solid trunks. With this kind of spirit lavishness, it would only take a few months and he'd be as mad as his Shakespearean role model.

I braced myself as a cloud of wooden particles was hurtled towards us, facing the other way to protect myself from injury. I waited for the sharp rain to hit me, but nothing came. Turning around, I realized why – Lissa had activated her own powers, shielding us. It was almost a funny sight; in spite of the fact that she managed to shield us so completely that not a single mote of dust hit us – everything instead siding down an invisible dome around us – Lissa and Christian were tightly entangled into each others arms, not clearly showing which one of them was trying to shield the other, and then the guardians formed even a second layer of bodily protection around her – all before everybody realized that nothing was going to happen.

"Since when can you do that?" Christian whispered in awe.

"I don't know," Lissa answered shakily. Her hand was still outstretched towards the air, trembling from the effort. "Adrian told me he'd been able to do that. I just tried and did it."

"Go away," an unsteady voice wafted over the clearing. Robert's voice. For a man of such power, he sounded weirdly small and weak. "Go away," he repeated, this time trying to lay more venom into his old-man's voice.

"Go already!" Rose screamed. Dimitri was trying to pull her away from Robert, towards where Sydney and Adrian were shoved behind the meager cover of some trees, but she wouldn't go. She wouldn't go because she'd leave us in the way of harm.

"You I have no business with," Robert's voice sounded. There was an almost pleading tone in his voice. "Go away."

Dimitri was still trying to convince Rose to withdraw. A discussion was going on at Rose's end of the clearing, Sydney and Adrian poking their heads out to contribute, all while Robert stood in front of the half torn-down hut, hands raised and chest heaving. His arms were shaking but he kept turning his head from Rose and Dimitri to us, gauging where the danger would come from.

"They'll try to run when we do," I assessed Rose's motives. "Rose doesn't want to leave when we're here. She's going to see us save and then she'll make a dash for it."

"Then why was she still there when we came?" Ava acutely observed.

"There's too much at stake now with Lissa and us here. She would have kept trying to get to him if we weren't there."

"Good we came, then," Ava growled. "Because this is a fight she's not going to win."

We were still frozen in space, all of us huddling close together to give each other cover. Now, we began to slowly edge backwards, keeping our eyes on our foe. Christian was supporting Lissa, who had gone fairly pale; doing her telekinetic stunt had powered her out more than had thought.

When we had almost reached the border of the clearing, I saw Rose and Dimitri starting to do the same.

By then, Robert must have decided on which group of us to attack, and his choice fell on Rose and Dimitri again.

"No," he screamed shrilly. "You will not escape! You have escaped for long enough!"

"What is he saying?" Christian muttered behind me.

"I have no idea, but do something!" Lissa urged him. Promptly, a wreath of flames wrapped around Robert's head, making all the flying objects instantly drop to the ground as his grip on the magic faltered. Rose edged further away from him.

"You don't understand," Robert wailed as soon as his face was flame-free again. "This is for my brother! This is for what she did to him! For his murder! His murder!"

His face was contorted to the point of the grotesque at his last words. He was no longer simply yelling but utterly screaming his heart out. It was a picture of madness. The man was demented. Simply gone totally insane.

In what appeared to be his ultimate effort, half of what was left of the hut rose into the air at once. Before anyone of us could do something, before Christian and Ava could even think of acting with their own magic, all those tons of debris rained down on the spot where Rose had stood before.

"Noo!"

Sydney's shriek from the other side of the clearing jolted us out of our horrified freeze. My heart froze as I saw the heap of wood under which Rose must lie somewhere, Dimitri already starting to pull trunks away, to free her.

"We have to get to them," Ava hissed, determination in her voice. "Lissa – you'll need to heal her."

I was afraid that healing Rose wouldn't be all that easy for Lissa. She wasn't used to doing magic on a larger scale, and she was already exhausted.

Ava had realized this too. "Looks like she'll need your help," she muttered to me before going back to business. Her self-appointed job would be to attack Robert so he would be too busy to launch another attack on us.

"Rose!" Lissa moaned desperately. She swayed slightly as she tugged Christian towards her, frantically trying to reach her injured friend. I took her arm to help her, so that Christian had his hands free to join the fight Ava was already giving Robert. We had to stumble over several logs to get to where Dimitri had located Rose; she was lying in the middle of the wreckage, but her body lay free. As I dropped down with Lissa next to a distressed Dimitri and Rose's lifeless body on the ground, fire and water started erupting all around our magical foe, but I didn't care. My task was helping my mom who was lying on the ground with a large bloody gash on her forehead and her skin and clothing torn and ripped all over her battered body.

"Heal her, Lissa, what are you waiting for?" The planks and boards lying scattered around her were hard and heavy, some with nails the size of my forefinger sticking out of them. And Rose looked the part. There was blood everywhere, and from what I imagined that falling lumber could do to a body her size, there must be heaps of internal injuries that we couldn't even see. Dimitri was bending over her, trying to get her to wake up in spite of the gaping wound that had opened on her head.

Lissa gave a whimpering sound. She closed her eyes, and I thought she was concentration on healing now, but then she opened them again. "I can't," she whispered. "I spent too much energy. I can't heal her."

"You can, Lissa, of course you can! You have to!"

Dimitri looked up at her, an expression in his eyes I only knew too well. The fear of life without his beloved Rose. I had to look away.

"Lissa, you can do it! You just have to try!"

She shook her head, tears spilling out of her eyes. "There's nothing left. I can't do it!"

Unthinkingly, I reached out and grabbed her hand. I positioned it over Rose's body and didn't let go. I had to hold on to her in order to help her reach her powers.

"You can do it. I can help you."

The look she gave me was so beyond hope that I almost thought she wouldn't even try.

"How can you help me?"

"Just do it!" I almost screamed. "It will work. But you have to do the healing. Please Lissa, you have to start the healing."

She gave me one last doubtful look, but she turned to face her friend once more. I felt the energy flow through the link I had created by touching her; I knew that using lots of magic would now be much easier for her. Even without bodily contact, I allowed magic users to endure beyond the limit of even a trained Moroi's magic use. When I touched someone, it was almost like I could amplify their magic by a multitude. Even a magically depleted person could still keep going for some time. Never before had I realized what great a gift it was that my dhampir parents had bestowed upon me. Not until my magic boost was responsible for saving my mother's life.

I was only dimly aware of the other magical battle raging next to us. Heat and dampness washed over us periodically, and sometimes, there were even the occasional sparks or droplets raining down on us. But the spirit attack on Rose had ended. Robert was too busy fending off Ava and Christian now.

And Lissa's and my battle seemed to be going well. The gash on Rose's forehead closed. Her face regained some color, and so did Dimitri's. There was a sickening crunch and a popping noise as whatever damage had been done to Rose's body righted itself. And then Lissa leaned forwards panting, and the flow of magic through our hands stopped.

"Her breathing and pulse is back to normal," Dimitri said, his voice rough.

"How did you do that?" I suddenly heard Adrian's voice. I had almost forgotten his and Sydney's presence. They must have helped Ava and Christian with Robert; seeing as Adrian's spirit powers were blocked by means of medication, he wasn't much use in healing, but judging by the branch he still held in his hand, his way of helping had been chucking things at Robert. And he was no longer contributing to the fight, I realized, because the fight had ended. Robert had disappeared. Christian and Ava were joining us, looking worried, and, in Christian's case, also shooting Ava some very astounded looks.

"Rose is alright," Dimitri said, roughly. "Let's get her back to Court. Let's leave from here. Fast."

* * *

 **Phew, so this was a long chapter for you. I'm hoping for reward in the form of lots of reviews!**


	11. Truths

**Yup, you were right. Lots of Q and A in this chapter… But Anton isn't the only one who has some explaining to do.  
**

Rose woke up on the way back to Court. She really was alright, I repeatedly told myself. We didn't all fit into one car, so we had to split up and drive back separately. Lissa had fallen asleep in the car, exhausted from all the magic she had used. Ava and Christian were about ready to drop for the same reason; even for Moroi as practiced in the use of their powers as those two, extensive magic use is strenuous. They didn't sleep, though; they were both too keyed up to sleep or even rest. What with me and the guardians being the only ones who weren't busy enough trying to keep their eyes open, there wasn't much in the way of talking during the drive. And the guardians weren't the question-asking type, very much in contrast to Christian, whom I could practically watch forming questions in his head. Thankfully, he kept them to himself for the time being.

When we arrived back at Court, the car that Dimitri, Adrian, Sydney and Rose had taken was already there. We met Sydney and Adrian in Lissa and Christian's place in the palace, where they told us that Dimitri had taken Rose to their own place to rest. Even though Lissa and Ava were practically asleep on their feet, we didn't go to our own room immediately. I think no one wanted to be alone just now.

Ava slumped down on a sofa in her younger parents' living room, and I carefully sat down next to her.

"Some night," Adrian announced in a hollow voice. He was the only one who hadn't immediately dropped somewhere, but stood watching us with his arms crossed over his chest. "It's been a while since so many questions have been raised in so short a time. Don't we miss the old times, Sage?"

Sydney snorted dryly. "The time when magic started to well up left, right and center and crazy fanatics lurked around every corner just waiting to behead you? Yeah, I really miss that time."

"Let's begin with you two," Adrian said sharply, stabbing a finger at Ava and me. "What the heck is your deal here?"

"Adrian," I said tiredly, remembering too late to use the proper form of address. I didn't care. I regretted having followed them up here. All I wanted right now was to get Ava back to our room so she could get some sleep. Me, though? My pulse was still beating like a high-speed train.

Meanwhile, Adrian was just getting started. "You show up here, with an uncanny interest in our lives and private information not even the most devoted of stalkers would know. You give warnings like an oracle, but it was only when you turned up at our doorstep that Robert did, too, muttering something about _wanting to touch our son_. You knew about Marcus, you're eerily familiar with things here even though no one has ever seen you around before, and now you reveal you have some secret power allowing you to help a spirit user heal, and you're a frigging _dhampir_ , for god's sake! How much crazier can things become before you finally reveal what's the big deal here?"

The adrenaline pumping through my body wouldn't allow me to sit still. I got up, started to pace around Ava's sofa, balling my hands into fists and opening them, trying to somehow release the tension that was building up within me. But I tried to keep my voice even. "There is no big deal. You have astounding powers, and I have some of my own, too. That's all there is to it."

"Are you kidding me, Anton?" I had never seen Adrian so agitated. Of all the people here, I wouldn't have thought that it was him who would be the most upset about this. "Do you know what this means for a Moroi? For a spirit user? I once let a person die because I had spent all my spirit magic. Someone _died_ because there was no magic like yours around. And you say that it's _no big deal_?"

In our pacing and pent-up energy, Adrian and I were a stark contrast to the rest of the company, who looked like they were trying their hardest to make their tired minds follow what we were saying. Only Sydney seemed alert enough to make sense of it.

"There's nothing I can do about that, Adrian," I told him. I felt my voice rise, against my attempts to stay calm. I really wasn't in the mood for his veiled accusations right now, or whatever he was implying. However, it was Sydney's guilty looks that finally managed to put me and my anger management over the edge.

"Why did you tell Rose and Dimitri you found him?" I blurted. "Why didn't you tell _me_? _I_ asked you to find out his whereabouts! Why did you tell them? Why them of all people?"

The guilt in Sydney's eyes was quickly replaced by irritation. "Because, Anton, other people have agendas of their own and they do not always share them with you. I might have had Marcus search for Robert with or without your request. More people than you have an interest in finding him."

"What? Why would you want to find him?"

"Didn't you listen?" Adrian ranted. "The creep wanted to get to our son. Daniella told us what he said in the nursery. He wanted to _touch our son_. Do you honestly think that that's not something we would look into?"

"Why register Rose's help then?" I repeated.

"Because she and Dimitri are guardians and we thought we could do with the help," Sydney retorted flatly. "Yes, in hindsight, I agree that it might not have been the best idea to get Rose into the picture, but we weren't aware of that in advance."

"Why is that?" Lissa's voice made us all turn our heads to her. I had assumed she was asleep again by now, but even though she still looked haggard, she'd recovered enough to pay attention to our argument. "What did Robert mean with what he said there? For his brother`s murder?"

"Yes, I'd like to know that, too," I agreed. Those words had been floating around in the back of my mind from the moment I'd heard them. I hadn't had the time to give them any thought yet, but they did strike me as noteworthy.

Adrian and Sydney shared a significant look. A very significant look which could mean nothing good.

"Victor has disappeared without a trace three years ago and never been seen or heard from," Lissa continued. "'His murder'? Did Robert mean that Victor was _murdered_ at the time he disappeared?"

Sydney's and Adrian's shared look definitely turned uncomfortable at that.

"You know something," I prodded. "I knew that Rose has a connection to Robert somehow." The connection that I had assumed all along – it was finally about to be puzzled together. Then suddenly, my eyes widened as a terrible realization hit me. "No," I exclaimed, refusing to believe it. "Rose did not murder Robert's brother!"

Sydney bit her lip. Adrian turned his eyes down.

"Didn't she?" I continued, seeking assent where I already knew none would come. My voice had grown smaller, carrying a pleading tone that made what I said all the more evident.

"Rose would never do such a thing!" Lissa opposed indignantly. "And she would never keep it a secret from me."

Sydney sighed. "Look, Lissa, it was an accident. She acted in self-defense. Victor attacked her, and she was consumed by spirit darkness. She pushed him too hard, and he fell in a bad way. He was an old man already, and it didn't take much for him to… Rose didn't want to kill him. As I said, it was self-defense."

Lissa looked as if someone had shoved a knife into her heart. I think I must have looked quite the same way. Adrian quickly tried to explain things further.

"Too many things happened that time. Rose was shot, you were elected queen… And Rose herself wanted to forget all about it. I guess it was easier for her not to talk about it."

Lissa blinked. "But how come you know all about it?"

"Sonya told us," Sydney admitted. "It came up while we were looking for Jill. Adrian suspected Victor and asked Sonya about him. She had to tell us to prevent Adrian from going on a wild-goose chase for him. He would have scoured the earth to find him if he'd thought there was any chance to get Jill back by it."

This was all too fast for me. My mind was still a long way from comprehending the news I was hearing.

"Rose killed Robert Doru's brother?" I said incredulously. "She killed… – Ava!"

I turned around to her, helpless. "Ava, that's why he wants to… that's why…"

My world crumbled down around me. Robert Doru had had a reason for killing my mother. He hadn't just attacked the queen and Rose had gotten in the way – he had targeted my mother in the first place. And Lissa and Christian had gotten in the way. Christian must have died in the crossfire. Did that mean that my mom was to blame for his death? My mom to blame for the death of Ava's dad?

And all this time, Robert had had a _reason_.

My mind was reeling and I had to stop myself from continuing on this path, or I would suffocate from the implications. What was Ava thinking? She was holding her head in her hand, swaying, her fatigue clearly showing. She was drowning in this situation, as much as I was. What if she would blame Rose? What if she would blame _me_?

I hadn't even halfway cleared my mind when Adrian swooped down on me again. "You stop talking in riddles. I'm not finished with you!"

"True," Sydney added. What had they just talked about? My mind was way too busy to properly assess what was going on anymore. Like in a trance, I made myself sit next to Ava again, letting her presence comfort me. "You're awfully invested in what happens with Rose," Sydney continued shrewdly. "And there's more. You know an awful lot about us and this place. It's as if you've been here before, only no one knows it."

She looked at Adrian. "Spirit tricks? Invisibility?"

"No, no way they would have gotten past Lissa with this," Adrian said. "And none of them is a spirit user. We've seen spirit users who managed to camouflage their magic with another element, but after the show Ava has just made with water, there's no doubt that water is indeed her element. As for Anton…" Something like worry crept into the look he shared with his human wife. "He's a dhampir all right. Only I wonder…"

"Was your mom or your dad a Moroi?" Sydney turned to me sharply, so suddenly that I almost jumped.

I wasn't following this anymore. How could they change the topic so fast? "Um… my mother."

"Were you raised by her? How come you have a Moroi mom? It's usually fathers. Did she raise you? Did they both raise you? Are they living together?"

"I… my… my dad raised me. He's a dhampir. I don't know why… No, they're not still together. I don't know my mom." I stumbled for words. My overburdened mind was too sluggish to come up with lies as fast as Sydney was pelting questions at me.

"Or maybe there is no Moroi in the equation." Adrian was looming over me, honing in on me like an eagle on its prey. "I see no other explanation for what you can do with spirit. I have never encountered any dhampir with any kind of access to magic, much less spirit. The spirit infusion resulting from a Strigoi restoration would explain that. Or at least, might explain."

"Nonsense," I retorted, trying to muster the energy to lay some semblance of incredulity into my voice. "That's not possible. You know that." At least in that respect, I had no problems lying. I had been raised with the instructions to lie about my parentage.

"We know about two Strigoi restorations in the recent past," Adrian continued. To my utter relief, he was letting off of me and was pacing towards Sydney again. Lissa and Christian were mutely watching the spectacle, but they still followed Adrian's every word with awe.

"It could have happened before. You're sixteen… So sixteen or seventeen years ago… We know nothing about any spirit users of that time. But it could be. We know that Robert converted someone in his prime."

Suddenly, they were all watching me very closely. Like some sort of experiment. Like I was the five-legged sheep or a talking gorilla or something. That felt uncomfortable. I was very unpleasantly reminded of the warnings my dad and Adrian and Sydney never stopped giving me, of what would happen if people found out I was a freak of nature. Of what they would do to me.

And then I felt – I literally felt – Ava bristle next to me. And I knew that if anyone wanted to conduct experiments on me, they would have to go through her first.

"Anton," Sydney approached me, carefully keeping her voice calm. "If this is true… that would be really important for… well, let's not say for the dhampir world. But for us, it would be. For… someone we care about."

Declan, I knew. They would want to know how I evaded revealing my exceptional parentage to the world. Declan's biological father had always kept his distance for fear of making his son's special gifts public knowledge. They would want to know what it was like for me.

"Anton's parents are none of your business," Ava suddenly put her foot down. "He's a dhampir. A very regular dhampir, as far as you're concerned. Any extras that might come with him are strictly his own concern. Stop pestering him about it."

"Ava." Christian slowly turned towards her. "You're hiding some secrets of your own as well, don't you? The skills you have with water magic… You did not learn that from me. I'm not even sure there's anything I could still teach you."

Mentally, I was tearing my hair out and slapping my face at the thought of what had we gotten ourselves into. It had happened just as we had feared: we had grown too close to them. They were becoming suspicious. They had come to know too many details about us, and they didn't add up. Me demonstrating my magic enhancement trick was probably the last in a series of instances that Ava and I should have attempted to prevent from the start. Bringing Sydney into the picture had been a mistake – mentioning Marcus had been, too. Even hanging out with our parents and spending so much time with them had been. Now we could only count on the concept of time travel to be so over the top that even a congregation as used to the unusual as this group here was would find it implausible.

"You have exactly the kind of training that I'm hoping young Moroi will get in school someday," Christian promptly said. "That would be what I'm working for."

"Someday," Adrian repeated, pensively.

Then Lissa, who hadn't said anything to the matter yet, got up and walked over to us. She squatted down in front of me so that she could look me in the eyes. I couldn't look away.

"We still have no idea what spirit's boundaries are, Adrian," she said. "In fact, we don't know if there's anything spirit cannot do." Her gaze was so intense that I had the impression she was boring into me with her spirit sight. I still couldn't avert my eyes.

Then she let out a resigned puff. "I don't have enough spirit left to properly see auras."

I was still sure that she wouldn't be able to gather much from my aura, but still, I found myself breathing a sigh of relief.

"This is going nowhere," Ava came to my aid. She made herself stand, struggling to get her tired bones up. "Keep conspiring all you want, but I'm going to sleep now."

Lissa got up and quietly walked back over to Christian. Adrian was still frowning at me with an uncanny look of insight in his eyes.

"Well, I think that's the first good idea someone's had in a while," he finally said. "Let's all get some sleep. Maybe our heads will have stopped turning by tomorrow. I don't know about yours, but mine is trying to imitate a roundabout right now."

Goodbyes were much scarcer than they used to be. Ava and I left, followed by the eyes of the others all the way to the door. I really didn't like the understanding and intelligence in them; it gave me the feeling that they would keep talking about us, and if they continued on the roll they were on, they would figure out a hell of a lot more than was good for us.

Silence hung heavy around us on our way to our guest housing building. We fell into step next to each other, but neither of us knew what to say. It was only when the door had closed behind us and we finally had some semblance of privacy that Ava started talking.

"They know decidedly too much now," she exhaled, dropping down on her bed fully clothed. "Things are getting out of hand. I have no idea how we ended up here, but we did. And it's not good."

I didn't immediately have an answer for her, because the words that went around in my mind consisted mainly of blast it, what the hell, a lot of question marks, interspersed with hoping that Rose would be all well in the morning.

And, a tiny little icy cold tinge of fear.

"Ava?"

Something in my voice must have alerted her that something bothered me. "What's wrong?"

"What Rose did…"

"Yeah, that's a bummer," she said when I didn't continue. "I would never have expected that. Makes Robert seem… unpleasantly human, don't you think?"

"Um… no, that wasn't what I thought."

"What did you think, then?"

I forced myself to keep talking. "She… she might be responsible… or at least, partly to blame… for what happened to your dad."

The frown that creased her brow now told me that she hadn't thought of this until now.

"You think so?"

"I'm scared it might be so."

"They care for each other." She considered it, analytic mind that she was. "You mom and my dad – they like each other. A lot. They would never endanger each other's life. Unless it was for Lissa's sake. They'd do anything for her."

"It seems like Robert is much more likely to target Rose than Lissa," I remarked.

"Of all the things in the world, Anton," Ava suddenly exclaimed, making me startle. With a leap, she was standing in front of me, Dragomir-green eyes drilling a hole in me and making me fall into them at the same time. "Don't beat yourself up over this! We're here to save both of them. And yes, it is entirely possible to imagine situations in which my dad might die in an assault meant for Rose, but why would that put any blame on Rose? All guardians are likely to die in an assault meant for someone else."

"Christian isn't a guardian… Okay, wait. I'm not saying I don't want you to, but are you telling me that it doesn't you bother in the least that your dad might still be alive if it wasn't for Rose?"

"No, it doesn't bother me! Because when people care for others, that's what might happen! I like to think that if someone attacked either Rose or Lissa, my dad would be there to defend them, and judging from what we have seen of Christian, that is exactly what he would do, even if Rose told him to stay back."

If there had been any space in our room, she would be pacing now, in spite of her exhaustion. "Anton, what they to, they do out of love for each other. It majorly sucks that they died, but if they're people who would give their lives for their loved ones, I'm going to honor them all the more for it!"

"But all this resulted from her _killing_ someone."

"Yes. Someone assaulted her, and she didn't let herself be the one killed. She didn't want this. You can't blame her for something that she would have done everything to prevent if she could have."

Ava took my shoulders and made me look at her. The magical battle had left its traces on her; her blonde hair had seen better days, and there were a few soot stains and tiny wooden splinters all over her. But no matter how ragged she looked – along with my dad, she still was the person who made me feel like home more than anything.

"Your dad loves her. You trust your dad. So trust him in this. If he loves Rose, she can be forgiven for this."

Then she sighed, breaking all the tension and the strain. "Besides, we have bigger problems. Them finding out that you're dhampir-born was not part of the plan. And I have a feeling that Lissa and Adrian aren't going to let this rest. Let's hope they don't figure out too much."

* * *

 **I don't know if there's anything in the actual books indicating whether Rose told Lissa about Victor, but I kind of never imagined Rose going to Lissa and saying, "Hey, by the way, I killed your uncle!" Rose kept a lot of secrets from her before, and if the subject didn't come up, I don't think she would force it. While I'm sure she wouldn't feel good about keeping this from her, I finally decided to not let Lissa know. How do you feel about this?**

 **Let me know what you think and write me lots of reviews! I love to read your views!**


	12. Sons

Tomorrow morning started bad when the first thing I heard was some very loud and very insisting knocking on our door.

"I know you're there." Rose's voice. Of course. "If you don't let me in, then your room will be without a door very soon."

I guess my worries for her health had been unfounded.

Groaning, I turned to see Ava reluctantly dig her disheveled head out from underneath her covers. A glance at the alarm clock told me a time that barely qualified as morning. Rose had gone to sleep a good deal earlier than we had yesterday.

"Guys, do I have to tell you that I'm serious?"

"No!" Ava hurried to mumble in reply, probably afraid of our door turning into a hole in the wall. I sat up while she disentangled herself from her covers and trudged to the door wearily. She didn't even make an effort to make herself presentable. Her hair was a mess and her eyes weren't even half open.

"Good morning, Rose," she croaked, exaggerating politeness. "I hope you slept well. For your information, we didn't."

Rose strode in without bothering to answer her. There wasn't much space in our room except from the narrow strip between our two beds, and there she stood and glanced down on me. It would be scary, really, if not for the fact that now that she was here, she didn't seem to know what to say.

"Um…" To be honest, neither did I. "You look better than yesterday." Yeah, great comment.

"I don't know whether to be angry with you or to hug you," Rose finally said. She flopped her arms in a helpless gesture, and then plopped down on Ava's vacated bed.

"Personally, I'd propagate the hugging," Ava advised. She quickly occupied the foot of the bed, maybe wanting to claim it as her own before Rose completely appropriated it.

"I know I've done crazy things in my time," my mom began again, "but you're seriously giving me a run for my money. Just going up there and thinking you could do better than two fully trained, and, excuse me for sounding arrogant, two of the best guardians at Court… that's what people generally call crazy."

"I don't know about you," Ava acidly replied, "but to me, it seems that we were exactly right in assuming that we could deal better than you did."

"Yes, you were." Rose's frank concession surprised me. "That's where the hugging comes in."

"Go ahead then," Ava mumbled.

"Dimitri said that…" Rose faltered and looked at me weirdly. Then at Ava.

Ava had noticed. "Well, I'm going to give you some privacy for the thank you-speech you owe Anton for saving your life. Excuse me for not making a proper exit, but seeing as I was rudely interrupted in my morning routine, I'm just going to take a very noisy shower."

I wasn't sure whether to feel abandoned by her or thankful for the moment with Rose. I settled for thankful. While Ava pointedly collected a few things about the room, I tried to look a little sharper by at least shoving the blanket off me and swinging my legs on the floor, even though I was less than presentable in boxer shorts and a t-shirt. I felt slightly embarrassed, but then the vague feeling of this being okay because she was my mom came up. I didn't dwell on it.

"Thank you, Anton," Rose said quietly. In the bathroom, I heard the shower go on. "And thanks to Ava, too. You saved me. Again." Then she laughed softly. "It's getting a habit, isn't it?"

"Hopefully not."

"Anton… What you're able to do…"

I shifted uncomfortably. I'd been afraid of this.

"Lissa and Adrian said that they had an assumption regarding your… family background."

Not too acute an assumption, I hoped.

"Is it true that…" Again, Rose stopped herself. Then she shook her head, mostly to herself, I guessed. "Well, you're not going to want to talk about that. I'm not going to make you."

That was definitely right.

She stood up, and it was clear she hadn't said half the things she had come here to say. "Sydney and Adrian are going to leave for their new home today," she said instead. "They're rushing it a bit, but Court never was Sydney's favorite place. They'd like to say goodbye to you two."

I nodded.

"Well. Just pass by the palace later." She was already by the door. This talk had definitely taken a turn for the short end of emotional confrontations. "See you there."

But she didn't leave; she hesitated. When she turned back to me, her face was stricken. "And… about what Robert said… he was right. I killed his brother. I am responsible for his brother's death. This is my connection to him. This is why I'm so afraid of him. Because he has a reason to hate me."

When Ava came out of the bathroom, she found me lying back on my bed, staring at the ceiling.

"For my first ever one-on-one with my mom," I said, "I think we both could have done worse."

….

Sydney was playing with Declan in the middle of the palace forecourt when we arrived. They were playing hide and seek, but Dec was doing it very ineptly, in my view. Hiding, for him, meant staggering about three feet away from her, giggling all the way, to then crouch behind a tree that wouldn't even hide half of his two-year-old's width. Then he would squeal excessively while Sydney pretended not to notice him for about two minutes, only to then act very much surprised when she finally did admit to seeing him behind the tree.

Sydney was swinging him up in her arms when we made our way to them.

"Look, Declan," she told the little boy when she saw us. "It's our new heroes. Nice of you to come by."

"Wouldn't miss a chance to say goodbye to the midget," Ava smiled fondly.

Dec darted away when Sydney put him down again, giving his best to be underfoot as we entered the palace.

"I am going to miss you guys," Sydney said, "but I'm still glad to get away from Court. This place still gives me the creeps. Not because of all the evil creatures of the night lurking around here. But because everyone seems to be just waiting for the opportunity to stab a fellow royal in the back."

"Yup, that's Court for you," Ava replied.

A tugging on my pant leg drew my attention away. Looking down, I saw tiny Dec, displaying a huge smile and shoving his little fist up to me. When I held my hand out, he dropped something in it, and then ran to Sydney to cling to her leg, still giving me a conspirational grin. In my hand lay a smooth, black stone that he must have picked up somewhere outside.

"I'm going to tell twenty-one-year-old Dec what an adorable toddler you were," I whispered, for Ava's ears alone. She smiled.

Sydney let us into the room where we'd met our parents before. Adrian and Lissa were there already, putting their heads together. They stopped talking when we entered.

"The mysterious saviors have arrived," Adrian welcomed us, in his typically exaggerated fashion.

"Give them a break, Adrian," Sydney stopped him. "They deserve that much."

"Well, take a seat then, saviors," Adrian said, not in the least bothered by her remark. "I shall not trouble you."

We sat and chatted for a while, asking about the house in North Dakota that Sydney and Adrian had set their eyes on, Declan, Lissa's political advancements, Declan. There seemed to be an understanding that things that concerned Ava and me – school, parents, hobbies – were not to be touched. Everyone wanted to prevent the embarrassment of us evading questions concerning our lives.

"What do you guys think of the new partner law?" Lissa wanted to know. "This concerns you more than it concerns us. I'd like your view on it."

I immediately knew what the partner law was – it had made history. Previously, royal Moroi had had a much higher chance of getting a guardian, maybe even two, while non-royals, even when they lived in a much more dangerous environment, were often sent off without protection. Lissa had changed that during the early years of her reign. Royals still got preferential treatment, but she had managed to alleviate some of the inequalities in guardian assignments. The law was called partner law because, contrary to the way many royals treated their guardians, most non-royals who were lucky enough to be assigned a guardian saw them as a much more than a shadow on the wall. I especially liked the addition to the law that Ava's dad had achieved later: Moroi who agreed to receive self-defense training by their guardian were much more likely to be assigned one.

"I think it's great," I instantly said. "It has been clear for a long time that it makes sense, but even guardians and novices didn't support this as much as they should have, because getting a royal assignment still means honor for the guardians. We have to get away from that notion and instead see honor as what results from protecting your charge's live, no matter whether they're royal or not. The partner law does a great deal in helping that notion along. I support it."

Lissa nodded thoughtfully. I noticed her sharing a look with Adrian that I didn't understand, but I didn't pin much meaning on it.

"I still don't understand why the idea of Moroi self-defense isn't bigger with you guys," Sydney said, shaking her head. "I mean, I don't want to interfere with your business, and I am always thankful for a guardian's presence, but I just don't get how you can rely exclusively on them when you have such powerful means of defending yourself. Why don't you use it?"

Lissa, instead of being insulted, smiled. "Oh, we're getting there. This is what Christian has been fighting for, after all. His most recent petition concerns an amendment to the new law. He suggests that Moroi who agree to work with their guardian to combine physical and magical combat techniques get preferential treatment in guardian assignment. They team up with their guardian and learn strategies and maybe even physical self-defense from them. Christian argues that that enhances the likelihood of both of them surviving in the long run, so that we'll end up with less guardians and Moroi falling prey to Strigoi attacks. Of course, what he also wants is to promote that more Moroi learn how to defend themselves. It's a long way from being through the confirmation process, but I think it has good chances to pass. It simply makes too much sense not to accept it."

Adrian snorted. "Hate to disappoint you, cousin, but nothing makes too much sense for royals who are afraid of their precious supremacy to discard. I, for one, would not expect hoorays for that idea."

"Don't be silly, Adrian, I'm not expecting a landslide win. But there are many progressive royals on the council now who won't be blinded by that. Christian has rubbed off on many."

"Yes," Adrian agreed. "Who would have expected Christian to end up being an asset for your politics?"

"Right," Lissa said, a proud smile for her boyfriend playing on her lips. "They once suggested I end things with him because people didn't look favorably on my association with him. But he's shown them."

Her love and admiration for her future husband was so evident in her words that I had to fight a sudden jab of anger at the injustice of Rose's and Christian's deaths. Why did it have to be our parents, who were so devoted to each other, who had to be ripped apart?

Rose, Dimitri and Christian came to join us, and Sydney and Adrian prepared to leave for good. It was hard to say goodbye to them; they were like family to both Ava and me, and we were sorry to see them go, even though there was solace in knowing that these were three people we could count on seeing again in the future. In our time.

They managed to get a private moment with us before their car would leave for the airport. Sydney gave me a hug that I hadn't quite anticipated. I felt her warm breath as she whispered in my ear. "If Marcus can dig up anything new, you'll be the one to know, I promise. You've shown that you're up to this."

Adrian shot a wistful look back at Declan and the others. Little Dec entertained them by repeatedly checking the number of his fingers, because Christian made him believe that he had one too many.

"Anton, if there's anything you have to share about your… special feature… it would be much appreciated."

I bet it would. Adrian and Sydney had spent all of Declan's short life worrying about what he might have to face because of the twist of nature that had allowed him to be born of two dhampirs. I had no idea what had changed when I was born, but I had never faced anything out of the ordinary because of this peculiarity. There was little advice I could give him, but I'd try nonetheless.

"Well, people notice a lot less than you'd expect them to. Even here. And…" That would be more of a life-changer to him. "Well, you might have noticed that Lissa has had no spirit rebound from the healing."

I noticed Ava biting her lip at this. Just like me, she was wondering how much I could safely tell the people of this time. In our timeline, Adrian had only stopped taking his pills when Ava and Lily had reported to him the effects I had on their magic. For many years both before and after the… accident, it hadn't mattered much because no one really used large amounts of magic around me. I was surrounded by my dhampir parents, other dhampirs and Moroi who were too young to use specialized magic, by Adrian who couldn't use his at all, and by Lissa, who didn't care either way. I only started to be fully aware of my ability when Ava and Lily started to use magic a lot, and found they could do it much more than others. My class at the academy hadn't noticed; their grades in elemental magic might have been better in average than any other year, but no one had ever attributed that to me.

Adrian understood. He looked back at his adopted son, still delighting the company with his peals of laughter. Then he nodded.

"Thank you."

The car doors slamming shut cut off Declan's high-pitched voice and left us watching the little family depart in a silence that suddenly made the air grow a little colder.

"I'll miss the kid," Christian muttered. Lissa chuckled indulgently in response.

"That makes me think," Christian perked up, drawing Lissa to him and towards the palace. "Why don't we go upstairs in your office and check your schedule for when you'll have time for that weekend trip of ours?"

"Of yours, is more like it. Why are you so determined to squeeze that trip in, anyway?"

"Well, you know… I want to have you for myself for a whole day just once…"

I distinctly saw him _wink_ at Dimitri. Who _winked_ in return. Now, that was probably the weirdest thing that had happened to us in this time yet.

"What's going on with him?" Rose asked Dimitri sharply. "Come on, you know something!"

Dimitri just laughed. I loved when he did that, though even in this time, he did it rarely. "You will know in time, Rose!"

They followed their friends into the palace, and Ava and I decided to take a walk across Court to clear our heads.

"I'm almost glad Adrian is gone now," Ava murmured. "He and Lissa together would figure out more than they do separately."

"As long the only thing they know is that my parents are both dhampirs, there's not much damage done," I tried to calm her. "Come on, they won't just randomly jump to the conclusion that we've time travelled and are visitors from the future, let alone their own children from the future. That's a big leap even for them."

"I don't know," Ava cautioned. "If they weren't so familiar with spirit, I would worry less. But they are. So why would they not come to the conclusion?"

"Because it is a crazy idea! Lily only found out she could do it because we wished for the ability to time travel and she actively tested her powers for signs of it. She might never have found out what her powers could do if we hadn't looked for exactly the right thing."

She sighed. "It's a waste of time to discuss this, Anton. We can't take back what they know now. We made a mistake by getting so close to them, but it's too late now." As if as an afterthought, she added, "And if we'd draw back from them now, that would only make them suspicious."

"It would definitely make them suspicious," I quickly agreed. "No, we shouldn't draw back."

We walked a few steps in silence.

"Now we need yet another way of finding Robert," Ava finally said.

"Marcus might find him again."

"I doubt that. Either way, we shouldn't rely on it."

"Then what?"

"If it needs be, we could just drive around where he was last, look whether we find signs of him."

"That's like searching the needle in the haystack."

"Any better ideas?"

"No."

I mulled my next question over in my head for some time before daring to ask it.

"How long do you think we will stay in this time?"

Ava didn't immediately respond. "Too long," she said then. There was pain in her eyes. "We planned on being here a few days max. We were going to have it all over with when we met Robert in Maine. We're already here for far longer than we expected."

"Do you think it will have… consequences? Staying so long?"

"I don't know," she said.

"The rings… and the chain…"

This time, she only nodded mutely.

The charmed objects were our primary concern. Charms lasted only so long even in a silver object. Without Lily checking whether the charm still held within them, we couldn't be sure whether the magic hadn't long left the silver. If that was the case – if we waited too long to use them – the magic would have fled the ring and the chain by the time we needed them. Lily had reckoned that the chain would hold a long while. She had taken so long to put the magic in it, so she thought that it would take equally as long to leak out. The rings were a different matter, though. Even though there was much more metal on them, Lily's bet had been on them lasting a few weeks, maybe months. They might already be worthless.

My head was still turning in circles when Ava and I prepared to turn in for the night. I pored over every tiny shred of information we had ever gathered about Robert. I turned over every bit of knowledge that we already had turned over hundreds of times in the past. As was expected, I had no sudden inspiration.

"We should dig up information on this brother of his," Ava suggested. "It's the only new thing we know. Only way to go."

I hummed my agreement when a knock on the door interrupted us.

"Please, not again," Ava groaned.

This time, it was me who opened the door, and not Rose who waited on the other side.

It was Lissa.

"Hi," she said guardedly. "Can I come in?"

"Um…" I shared a look with Ava, but she just shrugged. "Sure."

Lissa walked in almost hesitantly. Just as Rose had done this morning, she sat down on one of the beds, and folded her hands in her lap.

"Adrian and I talked a lot this morning," she began. Ava looked slightly panicked.

"We still don't know the full scope of what spirit can do," Lissa continued. "And we cannot say for sure that spirit is involved in the circumstances that brings you here. But we talked about what spirit _might_ be able to do… And really, when it comes to the obscure, I'm not sure there are any boundaries of spirit's potential."

I sat down next to Ava. We both tried not to let our faces betray anything.

"I looked at your auras," Lissa suddenly changed track. She blinked; maybe she was looking at our auras even now. "I cannot gather much from yours, Ava." She raised her head to meet her youngest daughter's eyes. "There's determination, and there's something that might be loneliness, and I often see warm feelings that seem to be suppressed a little. It changes a lot, fluctuates. It's inconclusive."

I half expected Ava to give a smart remark, but she remained silent.

"But you, you're clearer," Lissa turned to me. "You're excited when you're around Rose. That's not surprising. Many people are, novices especially. But I've noticed that when you're around Dimitri… I'd taken it for excitement too, but I think I haven't been careful enough. It's warmer than excitement. It's something more akin to… _love_."

When her green eyes met mine, I knew what she was going to say before she did it.

"Anton. Are you Rose and Dimitri's son?"

* * *

 **There you go. Lissa knows. Where do we go from here? :)** **Make me a Christmas present and give me some reviews!**

 **I wish everyone of you a beautiful Christmas time, whether you celebrate it or not!**


	13. In Leage for Rose

"Just don't tell them," I begged. "Whatever you do, don't tell anyone!"

"Of course I won't," Lissa replied calmly. I couldn't believe how she could be such a picture of serenity when I had been in a cold sweat practically since she made her revelation last night.

"Adrian," I continued, nervousness eating away at me. "Does Adrian now? Did you figure this out together?"

Lissa shook her head. "We both thought that time travel might not be out of spirit's reach. But Adrian could not see your aura. He did not draw the same conclusions as I did."

"How did you draw these conclusions, anyway?" Ava asked. She displayed as much nerve as Lissa did, not showing her frayed nerves in the least. "You had a few clues that something was off about us, but I would still have thought that it would simply be too far-fetched a theory for you to seriously consider time travel."

"I tested you," Lissa replied with a tiny little trace of smugness. "The partner law. It hasn't been enacted yet. We only recently started debating it, and we kept it under wraps from the public so as to minimize outside influence on the Council. Actually, the name only came up in the very last debate. Seems like it's going to stick."

She was clever, I had to hand her that. Ava's wits weren't a coincidence.

"So we betrayed ourselves," Ava muttered gloomily. She wouldn't let herself forget that anytime soon, I'd bet.

"What I'd find more interesting to know," Lissa said, leaning forwards. "Why did you come here? I mean, the how of it is pretty much beyond me, too, but there's a lot about spirit that I don't know. My guess is you had the help of a spirit user whose special talent happens to be time. But why did you come? What do you want here?"

"Lissa." Ava shifted uncomfortably. "I don't think we should tell you that. I don't think it's in your interest to know."

Actually, we knew exactly that it would be devastating for her to know and we would never, ever, no matter what would happen, tell her that she was about to lose the two most important people in her life to a violent death, but Ava's way of saying this was probably more effective in reducing Lissa's curiosity.

"It has something to do with Robert Doru, that much is clear," Lissa contemplated. "But I don't really see what you want to do about him. And why."

Ava sighed. She briefly met my gaze as if to ask if she could talk; I nodded, because clearly, someone with brains in their head should be the one to lead this conversation.

"Robert is a very powerful spirit user, and he's only going to become stronger. So strong, in fact, that at one point, it is has become virtually impossible to deal with him. He is not in his right mind, hasn't been for a while even in this time, and there's no rational way to stop him. We came here in the hope of stopping him now when he is not yet at the height of his powers. He is mentally unstable enough to make a case for him to be admitted into mental care. We hope that this would stop and stabilize him before he can get out of hand."

Lissa had listened with an increasing frown on her face. "What is he going to do?"

Ava bit her lip. Thankfully, Lissa didn't know that was the one sign that would tell me when something was troubling her.

All the same, she got the message. "Okay, don't tell me that. What I still don't understand is how Robert is able to harness that much power. When I met him a few years ago, he was already so far gone that he needed his brother's help in directing his mind. If he is using even more spirit now, how can he still be able to make a coherent thought? I've seen a spirit user who went too far. It doesn't end well. From what you say and from what I have seen, Robert should be a drooling vegetable by now."

"That's where I come in," I admitted. "Or people like me. We think that Robert must have been in close contact with Declan in the past. You have experienced yourself what that can do for a spirit user. We've seen him sneaking around Adrian and Sydney's house in Maine. It's likely that that wasn't the first time he was there."

Lissa nodded. She was taking this remarkably well. I would have expected her to be a little more freaked out by this. But maybe she was already so used to the crazy stuff that Rose and her associates were prone to doing that it took a little more than a visit from her best friend's son from the future to unsettle her.

"Rose's son…" She looked at me intently, maybe trying to see family resemblance that had escaped her before. I knew that apart from my dad's eyes and my mom's hair color, I mixed their features evenly enough for me not to be easily identified as their offspring. Also, it may have helped to have my grandma's red-hair and totally-different-look genes thrown into the bargain. "You know, even with the knowledge that it is possible, I haven't yet gotten my head around to imagining Rose as a mother. She only found out they could have children a few months ago. She told me immediately, but still… Rose as a mom…" She smiled. "Seems like I will have to force a little more maternity leave on her, though."

"What?" I said dumbly.

"You do recall me saying that there was a difference in the affection you showed for you mom and for your dad…?" She frowned at her own words. "Okay, it's super-weird to call them that."

"Hold on, you can't see everything I feel in my aura!" I protested. "Don't… police my feelings!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to intrude. All the same, I'm going to make sure that Rose doesn't make the same mistakes that her mom did in child raising."

Ava rolled her eyes. "See, that's just why we tried to keep it a secret. You're already planning interference."

"Hey, it didn't happen yet. How can I interfere?"

"I'm sure you'll find a way."

"Anyway. You're Rose's and Dimitri's son. You're from the future. Wow."

"And that explains Ava's exceptional use of water magic."

I almost jumped out of my seat at the sound of Christian's voice behind us. Ava swiveled around in lightning-speed.

"I'm finding it kind of encouraging to see that apparently, my work is more appreciated in the future." Not in the least fazed by the news of his guardian's time travelling son coming over for a chat, Christian ambled over to Lissa and plopped down on the sofa next to her. "And you're definitely taking after Dimitri. It's a relief, to be honest. The thought of a little male Rose teaming up with big Rose is a little daunting."

Well, no big Rose around when I grew up. Don't worry.

"I thought this was staying between us," Ava said reproachfully.

"He knew before I came to you yesterday," Lissa told her apologetically. "I wouldn't have figured it out without him. His clue was your fighting style. He says that that's remarkably similar to Dimitri's."

"I watched you a few times," Christian explained. "I trained with him for years now. He has some pretty special moves, kind of trademark Dimitri, which you seem to have mastered. I haven't. Yet," he added.

"Great," I grumbled. "Anything else we've blundered with? Or are you done listing our mistakes?"

"They're not mistakes, Anton," Lissa corrected gently. "They're the parts of our friends within you that made us notice."

"Which we would have preferred you hadn't," I remarked.

"We understand that," Christian said, sober now. "Knowing how their son turns out to be would put a lot of pressure on Dimitri and Rose. No matter how he's turned out – and I'd say that you turned out pretty much the way they'd want you to, but how would they make sure that their offspring actually ends up being what they've seen? No. Rose and Dimitri shouldn't know."

"That's something we can agree on," Ava said.

"They don't even know about the… time… thing," Christian added. "Just in case you wondered."

"Right," Lissa sighed. "But what now?"

"That's usually my line," I murmured.

"What do you mean, what now?" Ava asked sharply.

"Well, what do we do? You just said you were here to deal with Robert."

"And that is your business how…?"

"Ava, Robert didn't exactly express good intentions regarding to Rose. She's my business. So, what do we do about him?"

"You don't do anything," Ava told her bluntly. "You wouldn't even have known he was around if not for our meddling. This has nothing to do with you."

This time, we all heard the door open; Rose and Dimitri came in with a bang. She strode in followed by him, both sporting a noticeable frown.

"Did you two have a fight?" Christian said what everyone thought. "You only do that when _one_ topic is concerned."

"Which topic?" I automatically piped up.

"Shut up, Christian," Rose snapped.

"Don't let it out on him, Rose," Lissa chided her.

"Sorry," Rose instantly backed down, a reaction so out of character it earned her a raised eyebrow from both Christian and me. Maybe the news of Rose killing Lissa's uncle – albeit hated uncle – hadn't gone down without a fight between the two of them. After all, Rose had hidden killing a Moroi from her most trusted friend for several years.

Within the brief interval of embarrassed silence resulting from everyone witnessing an almost-fight between two friends, the sudden truth of what we were doing here hit me with full force: Lissa and Christian were having a conversation with Dimitri and Rose in the presence of their son and knowing that they were in the presence of their son. That must be the epitome of bizarre for them. They knew my secret. What if they blabbed? What if they couldn't conceal the secret from their best friends?

It took the rest of the conversation for me to overcome the sheer weirdness of the situation. I was tensing up with every word that Lissa or Christian said, for fear that they would say something wrong and that Rose would suddenly turn to me and look at me with the eyes of a mother.

And while I had not so secretly dreamed about that forever, I was in no way ready for it. I was so not ready for the real thing.

Ava's parents didn't betray me, of course. Utterly in disregard of the freakishness of the situation, they didn't let on anything out of the ordinary.

Ava's parents were role model secret agents.

I could tell that things between Lissa and Rose were still a little tense the next day. Rose looked like she hadn't slept since Robert had knocked her out. Ava and I were attending a public debate that Lissa presided over, and I watched Rose stand behind her with drooping eyelids. I don't even really know what the debate was about. All I know is that people talked a lot, and Lissa didn't at all except to open and end the debate. However, I used the time much more efficiently than the speakers did by thinking about our new evidence.

"You know, I have an idea," I whispered to Ava while loud clapping acquitted the end of someone's speech and woke me from my daze. She looked at me expectantly.

"The, um… grave. Where this brother of his is buried. If his brother is so important to him, maybe he goes to visit it. Maybe this could be a chance to find him again."

"Good idea," Ava murmured over the now ensuing hum as people shifted and talked among themselves in the break between speakers. "It's an illegal grave though, it won't be easy to find it. Dimitri and Rose are the only ones that I'm aware of who might know where it is. Do you think Dimitri trusts us enough to tell us where he buried the man that his beloved accidently removed from life?"

She stretched. "Besides, does Robert even know where it is?"

"Spirit user. He sure can find out." Another speaker mounted the podium and sorted her papers.

"It might be a start," Ava continued. "We need to get Dimitri to cooperate."

We both sat in polite silence while the woman talked on and on about a law that I didn't understand, and my mind started going in loops again. I leaned close to Ava and whispered to her: "By the way, how come that I'm the one they figure everything out about? Why don't they even have an inkling about you?"

"You had to take actions that betrayed more about you than I had to," she whispered back. "The fighting, the healing. There were more clues."

"You fought, too! They don't suspect you of anything!"

She grinned. "Maybe I'm simply a more complicated person."

"Yeah, that's it. I'm just so straightforward. An open book."

"You are straightforward, Anton. You're honest." A few monotonous lines went by until Ava continued. "Maybe I'm simply the better liar between the two of us."

People were giving us pointed looks by now, so we stopped talking and listened in silence. Or, in my case, pretended to listen.

Suddenly, Ava gripped my arm. "That's Danny," she hissed.

I roused myself from my speech-induced stupor to take a second look at the person who had just taken the stage. Indeed, it was Queen Vasilisa's future consort. Blinking, I made more of an effort to actually understand what people were saying.

"While I'm sure we can all agree that international relations matter, I cannot honestly justify to myself the costs that implementing this kind of protection for international guests would imply. We are currently hard pressed to provide the necessary number of guardians even for our own officials and emissaries. If we were to set a number of guardians aside to accompany foreign emissaries on their business in the states, we will not have enough left to keep our royal Council members and other delegates safe. Can we, with good conscience, secure foreign diplomats' visits but not ensure the safety of our own people?"

These must be his early attempts in politics. He had been active in the conservative wing in debates when we knew him, but he had never been important enough for a seat in the Council or even a minor position somewhere in Court. No wonder. When he wasn't talking downright bullshit, he was prattling on about things that no one gave a damn about.

"Come on," Ava hissed. "I'm not going to listen to this."

She got up and started squeezing her way past the people in our aisle, not caring about how many feet she stepped on. I hurried to follow her and let her drag me out into the open, where she stood facing away from the palace, breathing deeply.

"I will not return to a future where that moron is about to become my stepfather," she asserted to no one in particular.

"Then we'd better get our plans going again," I retorted. "Let's speak to Dimitri."

"He's in there with Christian. We'll have to wait."

So wait we did; we reentered the hall after all the other spectators – the ones that had endured until the end – had filed out. Lissa and Rose were still there; Lissa was engaged into an after-debate debate with her seat neighbors, the twelve Princes and Princesses that made up the Council. Eleven, to be precise; the Dragomir chair remained empty, as it had for years, because the current Dragomir Princess was still a few weeks short of turning eighteen.

"Ava, you can't just march up to the queen when she's in an official position," I told her quickly, seeing that she was about to do exactly that.

She frowned. "I always… Oh. Of course not." She shook her head. "I'm getting careless. Well, Dimitri's not here. Let's go look for him."

We turned to leave, but were held back by Lissa's voice calling our names. It felt a little intimidating to approach her where she sat on her high chair. I hadn't had much contact with the queenly side of my best friend's mom in the future, so this wasn't a position I was familiar with, looking up at her like this.

"Hey, you two. Did you attend the debates?"

Ava affirmed, but I would have found it preposterous to claim even so much as to have _attended_. While Ava and Lissa started to expound on the stronger and weaker points of each speaker's arguments, I met Rose's gaze. She smiled at me, although she really looked excessively tired.

"That Drozdov guy was talking nonsense. Why did you even let him speak?"

Lissa smiled. "Because I want everyone to have their say. I want to have as much of a democracy as possible without revolutionizing the entire system. Listening to people's nonsense is part of that."

"Are you following that?" I asked Rose, who hadn't left her spot behind Lissa's back.

"Not one bit," she answered. "Thankfully, my job is to stand here quietly and withhold my opinion. It's probably easier not to listen to every stupid detail that people say, or standing _quietly_ would be very hard indeed."

She suppressed a yawn, making Lissa give her a concerned glance.

"Why are you so tired?"

"Just not sleeping well. Don't worry, I'm still a hundred percent."

Lissa didn't pursue it. I gave Ava a few more minutes of brainy-talk with her mom, but then, seeing as we wouldn't find Dimitri here, gently disengaged her from the conversation. We left the hall, but didn't find Dimitri anywhere else, either.

As it turned out, he found us.

It was the third time we heard knocking on our much frequented guest housing door, and Ava gave an exasperated groan as she went to answer. However, the groan got stuck in her throat as soon as she saw my dad's head ducking under the door frame.

"Good evening. May I enter?"

I silently prayed that he had another reason for coming than the one popping up in my head; any other reason than telling us that he had found out about us. About me. Ava invited him in, for what else could she do, and then made him sit because craning our heads to look up at him was awkward.

"Of all the places we could have a cozy get-together in, why is it always this tiniest of rooms that you guys pick?" Ava sighed.

Dimitri let his eyes wander around the sparse interior of the room.

"You're right," he said. "We should get you a room in palace guest housing. They stand empty for half the time, anyway."

"That's not what she meant-"

"Sometimes, Anton," Ava interrupted me, "just say yes."

"Um… A palace room would be nice."

"But you're not here to talk about our accommodations, are you?" Ava asked Dimitri. He nodded, slowly.

"No, I'm not." He took a deep breath. "Look, I'm not happy about turning to you about this. But… this concerns Rose. And, in the light of what happened, I think you two are the only people I can and should turn to."

"Then tell us what this is about, Dimitri," Ava encouraged him.

Dimitri looked up, and his brown eyes shone with emotions. "I think that Rose has been having dreams," he opened. "Spirit dreams. From Robert. She's trying not to let me know how much they're getting to her, but the lack of sleep is evident. I don't know what Robert is telling her or doing with her in these dreams – she won't even admit to having them – but I know that she's afraid to fall asleep. She's afraid that he might draw her into another one of those nightmares."

I nodded to myself. So there was something more to her weariness.

"I'm not happy about dragging you into this," Dimitri continued. "You shouldn't be involved in this – you're sixteen, you're too young to go villain-hunting like this. But recent events have shown me that you are the people most capable of dealing with this. I have no idea how you come to know so much about Doru, but I know that I need your help if I want to keep Rose safe. He's after her. He wants to kill her, and he's strong enough to be a potent foe. And so help me, I'll do anything – _anything_ – to keep my fiancée safe. If he wants to kill Rose, it will be over my dead body."

His concession of needing help from us was already part of that anything that he was willing to do for Rose. I knew that endangering others – minors, no less – was bordering indecency for him, but the one word of his speech that stuck with me was:

"Fiancée?"

Ava snorted. "Of course, Anton, didn't you notice the ring? It's only the size of a chicken egg."

"You're engaged?" I had no idea why this was so stunning to me. I had known that my parents had been married.

"For seven months now," Dimitri said with a small sigh. "Rose refuses to settle on a date before Christian and Lissa have tied the knot."

"And what are they waiting for?" Ava asked.

Something greatly resembling resignation fought its way through Dimitri's almost impenetrable facial control.

"The right time," he muttered. Then his reluctance to speak about his friends' private lives got the better of him, and his face took on an almost comical expression of darkness as he added: "If this keeps going this way, we'll never get married. We'll be engaged for a lifetime."

Oh, this insight into our parents' marital life… or pre-marital life… I could see that Ava was trying really hard to keep a straight face; her amusement was catching. It took one look to let us both burst open with laughter.

"Good that my predicament is so amusing for you," Dimitri remarked dryly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Dimitri," Ava managed to say without laughing. "You'll marry one day. I'm sure of it."

"Anyway." My dad was back to business. "I hadn't intended this change of topic. About Robert. Do you have any plans of dealing with him?"

"Our first plan is finding a way to find him," I said. Even I noticed that that didn't sound encouraging. "Our idea was to ask you about the brother's grave. Does Robert know where it is?"

"Victor Dashkov," Dimitri mused. "No, Robert doesn't know where we disposed of the body. But couldn't he have means of finding out?"

"He could," Ava said. "Nothing's impossible with spirit."

"And you think that the grave might be a place to find Robert?"

"Well, unless Sydney's contact digs something up again, it' the only clue we've got. If this brother really mattered so much to Robert that he is ready to kill for his revenge, then he might go to visit his burial site. As of now, it's our only option."

Another knock on the door startled us out of our plotting.

"Seriously, people," Ava exclaimed. "When are you going to give us some peace?"

"Peace to hatch out your little conspiracy?" Christian poked his head in as soon as she had opened the door. "Do you have any space left for additional conspirators?"

"It's going to be a tight fit," Ava sighed resignedly.

"About to become tighter," Lissa's voice piped up behind Christian.

Ava and I groaned in unison.

They fit, but the room was about to burst by the time everyone had found a place on the beds.

"Boy, we're going to have to find you a room in palace guest housing," Lissa announced.

"Why are you two here?" Ava asked pointedly, ignoring the comment.

"We saw Dimitri heading over. And thought we'd better join the scheme before it's too late and you all got yourself killed," Christian explained. "We want to join the pro-Rose task force."

"The… what?" Ava stuttered. "There is no pro-Rose task-force. There is an anti-Robert two-people team. And Dimitri. That would make it a three-people team. But no task force. In fact, no force at all."

"You're not taking part in this," Dimitri hurried to second her. "You're the queen. And you're my charge. There's no way I could agree to jeopardizing your safety."

"But it's okay to jeopardize Ava's?" Christian countered. "Anyway, I don't think you'll get final say in this."

"Of course it's not okay to endanger her," Dimitri protested. "I won't endanger her. I'll-"

"You'll nothing," Ava interjected indignantly. "We're the team here, and you just asked for our help."

"Dimitri asked for help?" Christian asked. "No way. Dimitri doesn't ask for help. Dimitri _is_ help."

"Not this time," Lissa remarked insightfully.

"That doesn't change the fact that neither of you should get close to Robert again. He's dangerous." Dimitri was trying to lay on his best I'm-a-guardian-I-know-best-voice, but Lissa wasn't buying it.

"You're right, Dimitri, Robert's dangerous, and even more so to you than to us. You're out of your depth here, Dimitri, and so are you, Anton. Robert is a magic user. You'll never even get close enough to him to use your guardian prowess. No, this is a magic user fight. You'll need magic users in the team. And Ava, admirable as your skills are, you won't be enough. You need Christian and me."

Ava was starting to mutter incoherently under her breath.

"Look, Lissa is right," Christian stepped up. "We've shown that we can hold our own against Robert, both of us. And thanks to Anton, Lissa can use her powers for the first time without being afraid of the consequences. We're stronger together."

Dimitri seemed lost for words, so I turned to Ava.

"That's a stupid idea. Tell them!"

Ava shot me a funny look. "Actually, Anton, I think they might be right," she said apologetically. "Believe me, I like it as little as you do, but having them with us would double our chances at finding _and_ vanquishing him. We should do it. We should team up."

"Seriously?"

I kept nagged about it for a while, but I could tell when I was overruled. We would have to be doubly careful to prevent any of our parents from getting hurt now.

"Well," Christian said questioningly. "Do we have a pro-Rose league?"

"I thought it was the pro-Rose task force," Ava retorted.

"And I thought it was the anti-Robert task force," Lissa shot back.

"Can we just call it _us_?" Dimitri suggested.

"Can we just call it a day?" I exclaimed impatiently. "I'm sick of conspirational meetings when I want to be in bed. Can we postpone the naming of our group to tomorrow?"

This sparked off a flurry of 'Of course' and 'We'll leave you to it' and 'Sleep well', and they all got off and arranged themselves so they could exit the chamber one by one, whishing us a good night. Just when they'd all finally gone, Christian poked his head back in.

"And just in case you had anything planned: this teaming up is as much for your protection as it is for Rose's. So don't even think about sneaking out or anything."

Then the door closed, and Ava leaned back on her bed and sighed.

"Thanks for caring, Dad."

* * *

 **I hope you're all having enjoyable Christmas holidays! I do, and this story is profiting so much from all the free time I have while visiting my family. :)  
**

 **Thank you for your reviews, I'm always so excited to read about your guesses about the story and characters! Looking forwards to reading what you think about this chapter!**

 **Keep the reviews coming!**


	14. Start of a Journey

As if it wasn't enough to have the Moroi queen, her boyfriend, and his guardian (who happened to be my dad) involved. No, it wasn't enough to endanger three of our four parents. Of course, we needed to get the fourth one mixed up in this mess, as well!

The thing is, I might not like it, and I was sure that Ava didn't like it either, but her reasoning had my back to the wall, as always.

"Look how not involving them turned out for us," she had said. "Here we are, basically under surveillance and unable to do so much as leave Court without them knowing. We're effectually incapacitated. If we involve them, we'll at least be able to actually take action."

I hadn't accepted defeat that soon. "So what if we have to take it a little slower without them? I don't care if it takes years. We'll lay low for a while, but eventually, we'll get him! And none of them gets hurt!"

First, her expression had been almost pitiful. "We don't have years, you know that as well as I do." And then she had given my defensiveness the final push. "And it won't work. You see how it is. We're unable to stay away from them. They're unable to stay away from us. What if they follow us to a confrontation? How can we protect them when we don't even know they're there? At least when they are with us, we can try to keep them out of harm's way."

From then, it hadn't taken me long to accept her point that with Rose being the only one who had contact with Robert – through the dreams – the whole venture would be pointless if we left her out of the picture.

Only, as it turned out, Rose wasn't overly pleased to hear about our joined quest to save her life.

"Come on, Rose."

"We know it anyway."

"You're just being really unhelpful."

"And we'll eventually find out, anyway."

"It would be a lot faster if you'd simply tell us about the dreams."

Rose stood in front of us, hands on her hips and looking every bit the legendary guardian I had heard tales of.

"You can't be serious," she fumed. "Not only are you saying that one encounter with Robert wasn't enough and you want to actively seek him out, no, you also want to bring two teenagers and the queen of the Moroi world into it? Are you freaking kidding me?"

"Rose, come off it," Christian told her bluntly. "None of us is happy about bringing the others into this. But the fact remains that neither one of us is strong enough to deal with Robert on their own. We need each other, and that includes Lissa and it includes Ava and Anton. So if you'd rather want to not get your hands dirty by involving them, you will have to stay out of it altogether. Which is fine with us, seeing as you're actually the one person whose life really is in danger here."

Well, not quite, but we'd let that pass.

Lissa sighed at her boyfriend's bluntness. "Yes, we'd be happy to leave you out if it, if it wasn't for the fact that we need access to those dreams. And seeing how you're the one having them, it would really be helpful to have you on the team. The dreams are our one point of contact with Robert."

"Those dreams will give you no clue," Rose contradicted her furiously. "He's only showing me what he wants me to see. He doesn't give away where he is or what he's doing. He isn't that stupid."

It was the first time she had openly admitted to having the dreams at all.

"Still, he might let something slip. We'll only find out if we analyze the dreams. Together."

"Lissa, you can't just pack up and leave Court to chase after him! That won't go unnoticed, and how will you explain?"

Rose faltered slightly, and I could see her tense as she waited for Lissa to answer her. I recognized the more serious question in her words: _Will you tell why Robert wants revenge on me? Will you tell about Victor?_ The two still hadn't talked this one out. This was Rose's way of asking Lissa how she was dealing with the news.

I was a little surprised that her answer wasn't perfectly clear to Rose. It was for everybody else.

"Rose, I'm not going to tell anybody anything," the queen replied calmly. Rose's head jerked up.

"I don't know if that's the right thing to do, but then, I don't know what the right thing would be. I'm not going to put you in jeopardy of being accused of another murder. But we need to put an end to Robert's revenge plans."

Rose cringed at the word _murder_ , but kept her composure. "He's going to tell, once we submit him into custody."

"Nobody will believe him."

"Victor's been gone without a trace since then. They might believe him."

"Victor's a wanted fugitive. No one needs an explanation for why he would want to disappear."

"What do you want me to do?" A desperate tone had sneaked into Rose's voice. "There's nothing I can do about these dreams. And nothing I can learn from them. I can only try… not to let them too close to me."

She looked lost standing there, a haunted expression on her face. When Dimitri got up and led her to sit beside him, she allowed him to do so. Now she sunk into the plush couch of Lissa's private rooms, and almost seemed to hide in Dimitri's protective embrace.

"I could try dreamwalking again," Lissa suggested. "I never had much success so far, but maybe with your help, Anton…?"

I shrugged. "I'm willing to help, of course. But I can't help you with the actual magic. Just enhance your powers."

"No," Rose groaned. "Liss, you can't come into these dreams with me!"

"I'm sure that if you can handle it, then so can I," she told her firmly. "Besides, they probably won't affect me much, since they're targeted at you."

"What is he showing you, Rose?" Ava asked my mom. "If you tell us details, maybe we'll discover something that gives him away."

"It's just…" It was no surprise that Rose was so reluctant to talk about what Robert made her see in these dreams. I wondered just how sick his fantasy could be – he sure could come up with creative ways to show a person their worst nightmares without resorting to dead puppies.

Dimitri tightened his arms around Rose. She swallowed. "So far, everything he did was he… he took me to the parking lot. Where it happened." She stared at the little coffee table that separated us. "And… he shows me his memory of it happening, too."

Making her relive the moment that turned her into an involuntary killer. And I'd bet that wasn't the worst he could do.

"So that place holds importance for him, after all," Ava muttered pensively. "It's not just the deed itself. Well, that supports one idea that we had. That the place of Victor's death or his grave might draw him in. That he might be returning there every once in a while."

"That could be," Dimitri agreed.

"According to what Adrian said about dreamwalking," Lissa contemplated, "one has to have a good memory of the place one creates the dream in, or it'll be fuzzy. How does the parking lot look like, Rose, anything fuzzy about it?"

"I think it's pretty detailed," Rose replied. "But I don't usually care much about the parking lot."

"Well, next time, do," Ava said matter-of-factly.

"Oh, thanks for the tip," Rose scoffed. "Next time I'm watching myself kill a man, I'm going to take a walk around the scene."

"Excuse me for trying to find a solution," Ava bit back, eyes narrowed in irritation.

"Stop it," I snapped. "This isn't helping. We'll try to get Lissa into the dreams, but if that isn't working, you'll have to do a little snooping around yourself, Rose. Other than that, we have no real lead. So you'd better try."

I was less confident later, when I sat with Lissa in her private rooms, holding her hands as she leaned back and closed her eyes. We both sat on her fairly large bed, with Christian watching us from a distance. There was really nothing for me to do – my powers worked without my conscious effort. So basically, my task was to sit still and hold Lissa's hands while trying not to disturb her dreamwalking efforts.

Rose would have gone to bed now, and she'd promised to make an effort to actually fall asleep for a change. Even if Lissa's attempts at duplicating what Adrian and Robert were so adept in failed, at least Rose would get some sleep tonight, dream-ridden or not.

My position started to become very uncomfortable about ten minutes into the experiment. After half an hour, I felt cramped from head to toe, although I knew it was just my own pressure to not move. Lissa hadn't twitched a muscle all this time – I began to wonder whether she had fallen asleep for real. My eyes began to wander around the room, being the only part of me that was allowed to move. I studied every detail of the photographs on the wall, documenting three years in a monarch's life and more years in the life of an ordinary girl. Frequently, my gaze fell on Christian, who wasn't doing much more than waiting either. There was a lot of paperwork strewn all over the large desk by the window; whether it was homework from Lissa's final year in college or Court stuff I couldn't discern.

She made me jump when she finally opened her eyes and sat up straight with a loud sigh. "I can't do it. I feel like my mind is clearer with you there, but it isn't enough. I can't do it."

"We should check whether Rose is actually still asleep before you admit defeat," Christian cautioned, now joining us in the bedroom. He texted Dimitri, and his reply came promptly – Rose was sleeping. And 'it does look like Robert is already tormenting her', as Dimitri put it.

"I don't understand why every spirit user can do it, but I don't!" Lissa exclaimed. "Everyone's learned how to heal. They can all do what I do. But I can't master their tricks!"

"You're still better at healing than most spirit users," I offered as a consolation. I had to admit, I was a little frustrated that the only thing that might help us figure Robert out was happening within Rose's head. Lissa gaining access to those dreams would really have helped.

She gave me a crooked smile. "How does it pan out, in the future? Am I still the healing expert?"

I shrugged noncommittally.

"Right, not saying anything," Lissa remembered quickly. "But it's weird, knowing that you know us in the future. That you know things about us that haven't even happened yet."

"Yeah," Christian affirmed. "There are quite a few things I'd be burning to ask you, if I didn't know that I wouldn't get an answer anyway."

They looked at me in a funny way, as if they were wondering what kinds of secrets I knew about them. They wouldn't like the answer.

"Must be hard to be with Rose and Dimitri without letting them know anything," Lissa said gently. Her eyes radiated warmth like she so rarely did in our time anymore. For the first time, I felt so strong an urge to pour my heart out to them that it almost hurt; in this time, they would comfort me. They would tell me that everything would be alright. And I might believe them.

I stood up abruptly.

Lissa sighed sadly in response. "Well, I think that's enough for today. Thanks for trying, Anton. We'll have to ask Rose whether she learned anything tomorrow. And in the meantime, I'll come up with an excuse for leaving Court for a while. Without guardians."

"It helps that you're a spirit user," Christian said meaningfully.

"I know I can compel them, but I'd prefer not to mess with anybody's mind if not strictly necessary," she rebuked him.

"Compulsion," I mused. "Is that another thing that you're good at?"

"Excellent," Christian answered for her.

I couldn't hide a sly grin at the thought of that. "I didn't know that." Actually, Queen Vasilisa had taken great pains to teach her daughters that they should never, ever use compulsion on someone if it wasn't in the direst of circumstances. But, well, I think we had reached the direst of circumstances, if you took the future into account.

My way home was a short one; Lissa had made good on her promise to get us a palace housing room. I went down a few corridors and opened the heavy wooden door which was a prime example for the original grand interior of the palace. Lissa had done a lot to tone it down, but the fact that this was a royal residence was still evident.

It was a weird feeling to step into the rooms we'd been assigned to. Ava and I were familiar with this part of the palace. It was this wing that Lissa would later turn into her family home, once she and Christian needed something bigger with their two children. I hadn't expected them to be just that familiar, though.

"You've got to be kidding me," Ava had muttered under her breath as Lissa opened the door for her. This was the exact room that would later be turned into Ava's nursery, and would remain her room throughout her teenage years, whenever she was home from the academy. The interior was completely unrecognizable, apart from a big drawer that would survive the vigorous modernization of the entire wing. I'd been put into an adjacent room, the one later known as Lily's teenager cave. We'd both had to snigger at the idea that apparently, someone hadn't been comfortable with the two of us sharing a room.

Ava was waiting up for me, but all I could offer her was an apologetic shrug.

"It didn't work."

"Well, you tried," she said. "Not even my mom can do everything."

Rose told us about her dream in grisly detail the next morning; it was a torture to listen to and even harder for her, and we gathered nothing by it. Lissa assumed that the parking lot was indeed more familiar to Robert than a one-time stay there could achieve, so the guess that he was drawn to return to the place of his brother's death seemed likely. Other than that, the only thing we gained was a much better understanding of why Rose preferred to stay awake at night. After that, Lissa gave her a charmed silver penchant to safeguard her sleep from intrusion.

That night, Lissa announced to the Council that she would be in seclusion with several foreign envoys and ambassadors for the next days. The alleged meeting was held in an official conference hotel, and she would just tell her guardians to guard the perimeters under the pretense that she'd be save with the foreign guardians inside. The plan had holes, in my view, but she probably had spirit means galore to make people not notice them. Meanwhile, I made a mental note never to be this queen's guardian. How did you ensure the protection of a person who was constantly devising devious ways to lose her protectors? Fortunately, I was very unlikely ever to be picked for such a prestigious position anyway.

Since in order for her ruse to work, Lissa had to leave Court with her guardian detail only, the rest of us had to go separately.

"Are you ready?" Dimitri poked his head into my room.

"Don't have much to pack," I replied. Ava and I had stowed all of our few belongings in the backpack, as usual.

Dimitri nodded. I got up to follow him out, but instead of leaving, he slipped the rest of his body into the room and closed the door behind himself. For a brief second, he stood there a little awkwardly, and seemed at war with himself whether he really wanted to speak. But then he did.

"Look, I know you think you're just fine with everything that's been going on," he began. "But I have some experience with minors undergoing extreme situations. And I know that sometimes, things get so intense that even the best-prepared adult will have trouble coping with them."

I fidgeted, not knowing what he was getting at.

"Just… If you ever feel you're in over your head…" my dad continued, "please don't hide it. Believe me, it's much harder to watch someone bury their problems deep within themselves than helping them through them. Ava and you… you seem so old and long-suffering sometimes, but I wonder how you two really feel. Sometimes it seems like you're both hiding a lot of pain."

And me, sometimes I forgot how astute an observer my dad was. We had always been honest with each other, even though he had never burdened me with the whole extent of his pain. Habit made me wish I could just tell him how desperate I was to finally make progress in getting him a better future. But I couldn't.

"We're fine," I said instead. I could tell he didn't find that very convincing.

Ava was ready, too, and we met Christian by the car. Dimitri took the wheel, and off we went, out of Court, onto the highway. We didn't stop until we had reached the town where Lissa's alleged secret meeting was taking place.

Dimitri called Rose on her phone, but we would have to wait until they could safely make their escape from the guardians.

"Better settle in for a wait," Dimitri told us when he hung up. "They guardians are still doing a safety tour around and inside the hotel. It will be a while until they can disengage themselves from that."

So we made ourselves comfortable. Ava and Christian started to chat about magical self-defense –ways to combine fire and water, a topic that I didn't have much to contribute. Dimitri, ever vigilant, ceaselessly scanned our surroundings, not only for signs of Lissa and Rose, but for any kind of threat we might encounter. It was still light out, so there was no risk of Strigoi, but the streets surrounding the hotel were fairly busy. He probably judged the risk of someone randomly trying to stab us with a knife not at all unlikely. I tried to follow his example, but repeatedly found my attention sidetracked by individual people instead of watching the whole of it. Also, I was pretty distracted by my rumbling stomach about fifteen minutes into the wait. There hadn't been much time for breakfast.

"Hey, anybody mind if I go grab some food around here? Am I the only one starving?"

It turned out that I was, but I was certain that this was merely due to differing definitions of the degree of hungry you have to be in order to be starving. After having collected food orders from everyone and security advice from Dimitri, I went in search of a decent burger place and got lucky a few streets down from where we'd parked the car. I had never before seen a place which sold burgers and managed to look high-class at the same time – except from Court, where more or less everything came in the high-class variety – but I guess a town that was attracting conference participants as their main income tended to have everything lean towards premium.

I got into line and tried to find the less pricey items on the overhead menu when someone's voice attracted my attention.

"Chances are still bigger than at Court," a young man's voice said. "And I went years without getting a one-on-one with her there. I'm going to try anything."

Court? Only Moroi or dhampirs would drop that word so casually in a conversation. I glanced to my right surreptitiously, and immediately recognized the handful of young guys in the line next to mine as Moroi. The speaker had his back to me, and I didn't recognize any of his friends. They all looked in their mid or early twenties, and had the abundance of money written all over them. Their clothes were this mix of fancy and simplistic that screamed expensive, and their hair had the ridiculous style that exhibited how much time they spent in front of a mirror instead of doing anything useful. They were clearly Court people. Rich royal Moroi.

"At least she's seen you behind the speaker's desk before. My proposals for debates never get accepted," another guy with a shockingly red shirt said.

"Yeah, but come on," the first guy said. "Delegate protection is not really a topic that will draw her attention to me. I have to get a shot at the bigger topics. Novice assignment or Court order perhaps."

Delegate protection? Where had I heard this before?

"Or Moroi training. That seems to catch her attention pretty well," another nondescript guy joked.

The first guy wasn't pleased with this. "Shut up. I'm not going to step into Ozera's footsteps. Moroi society has coddled this traitor upstart for too long. It's time this ended."

His line progressed, and he turned towards the counter; I was just in time to turn my own face away from him. I should have recognized him sooner: Danny Drozdov. Ava's childhood nemesis was standing right next to me in line at the very burger place that my growling stomach had driven me to. And he hardly made a secret of his purpose for being here – he wanted to get closer to the queen while she was out of Court, surrounded by less people, and, above all, apparently: away from her boyfriend.

"Well, no one considers him a traitor anymore, Danny," red shirt said. "Maybe you should go with the times."

Danny snorted. "He's done pretty well for himself, hasn't he? And now the whole of Court obliges when he speaks. Yeah, we've really gone a long way if we welcome people like him in governmental positions now."

"Um, Danny, he holds no governmental position," nondescript guy said. In truth, they all looked alike to me, with their fashionable hairdos and their flashy tieless shirts.

"And what do you call consort to the queen?" Danny retorted. "If that's not an influential position, then I don't know what is."

I realized that my line had moved forwards and quickly moved to close the gap between me and the person in front of me. It was almost my turn, and Danny and his gang were almost at the counter, too. Danny would get a good look at my face when I ordered at the same time as him. I wasn't sure whether he would recognize me, but Ava and I had annoyed him enough in our one meeting that I didn't want to run the risk. There was nothing shady about me being here, but when you're about to go on a secret man-hunt involving the queen and her favorite guardian sneaking away from a set-up business meeting, you do want to be extra careful.

I turned my face away further and considered just dropping out of the line and try somewhere else, when I noticed two girls to my left giving me funny looks. I was certain I had never seen them before, but they were clearly looking at me. In fact, one of them was nodding her head suggestively, signaling for me to come over. I blinked. I wasn't exactly the type that girls would make eyes at, and something about these girls was off… There was something like a haze surrounding them, now that I gave them a closer look. Actually… they did seem kind of familiar…

No, wait. They were Lissa and Rose.

Fantastic! Lissa was disguising them magically. I had always thought that I hadn't been at the receiving end of spirit's deceptive tricks often, but now… a teeny-tiny sliver of suspicion started to nag at me as I wondered how many times Lily might have fooled me this way. My mom and the queen had been standing next to me for maybe as long as ten minutes, and I hadn't recognized them until I started to really look at them.

I got out of my line and moved over to them. They had just left the counter, each carrying two paper bags. As soon as I'd reached them, I started to pull them away, getting some distance between us and the busy counter lines.

"What are you thinking?" I hissed at them. "You're supposed to not draw any attention to yourselves! Stopping to grab lunch was not part of the plan for you!"

"Jeez, calm down, Anton," Rose said with an eye roll. "You're starting to sound like Dimitri. We were hungry. And you better be thankful we grabbed enough for all of us."

"There are Court people here! They could have recognized you!"

"When not even you recognized us? Not likely. Liss is a pro."

"Rose, it's a risk. They were talking about charming their way into Lissa's good books in the peace and quiet of a conference stay, as it appears."

Lissa sniggered. "They're not the only ones, I bet. Well, they won't have any luck, because this is going to be a _very_ confidential conference. In fact, it's going to be so confidential that no one's even going to get a glimpse of me. Very secretive, those Romanians."

Something told me she was enjoying this venture a little more than strictly necessary. But then again, for a person who was spending her life in the center of public attention, sneaking away from both public and guardian eyes was probably an exhilarating dare for her.

"Let's go, I'm hungry," Rose urged. "Show us to the car, Anton?"

I almost felt like a guardian, leading them back to where our car was parked, although I had to ignore the fact that I had failed to notice both a potential security threat and the presence of my queen and my mother in my close proximity. Maybe it was their keener perception, or the girls' walking side by side with me that gave them away, but neither my dad nor Christian seemed to be fooled by Lissa's magic. They gave the two girls a sharp look and saw through the disguise immediately. Only Ava seemed puzzled at first, but she figured it out soon enough.

The car was one of those extra-large SUV's that easily seated six people, so we had no trouble fitting everyone in. As soon as we were all seated– after some rearranging due to Rose's insistence that we put Lissa in the middle row where she was best protected – we took off. Rose and I started munching on our burgers the instant we got our hands on them.

"We won't make it all the way today," Dimitri informed us. "It's later than we'd hoped. We're going to have to stop for the night."

It was a whole day's drive to get to Michigan, where Rose and Victor's fatal squirmish had taken place. Dimitri hadn't been too specific on the whereabouts and arrangements of his final resting place, but I suspected that they hadn't made it far from there before they got rid of him.

It turned out to be quite the fun drive, mainly because Rose and Lissa were so exhilarated from their daring escape from the hotel. Rose and Christian bickered a lot, but they always did, and even Dimitri's mood lifted from super grave and guardian-dead-serious to guardian-on-a-very-good-day. It struck me that the last time that those four had been out of Court together without official Court business to attend to and without the watchful but prying eyes of other guardians around had been… well, probably never.

The sun was fairly high in the sky when we finally stopped at a small-town motel. We had debated switching to a human schedule, but had dropped the idea, seeing as we had three Moroi with us who didn't take the sunlight well. Conversely, it was unlikely that we would encounter Robert in the bright daylight.

We booked two rooms, but resolved to all sleep in one because otherwise, both Rose and Dimitri would have to stay up all night. With this arrangement, they at least both got some sleep. I would have shared guard duty with them, but of course I wasn't much of a guardian yet in their view, so they declined my offer.

They did accept my and Ava's offer to sleep on the floor, though. We took the bedding from our second room and installed ourselves at the foot of the two queen-sized beds, one occupied by Lissa and Christian, the other by Rose while Dimitri took first watch.

As I settled into my makeshift bed, Ava snuggling into her blankets next to me, I relished the thought of our two families being together, all intact. Thankfully, no one saw, but I think I might have fallen asleep with a little smile on my lips.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed :) As always, make me happy and let me know what you think!**

 **Btw, it's been really helpful when you wondered why someone is doing something or why they didn't figure out that when they figured out this... Most of this will be shed some light on in later chapters, but sometimes it makes me realize that I have a reason for things but haven't explained it at all. So, if you discover a plot hole - lay it on me!**


	15. Nightmares

A shriek slapped me out of my sleep like a punch in my face. I felt groggy and barely awake, not at all as alert as a guardian needs to be when raised by screaming at night. Ava shot up next to me, getting her bearings much faster. Rose was standing at the door, too calm for an attack, and Dimitri was upright in his bed but not moving. I now realized that the screams were coming from Lissa, and they were turning into sobs and whimpers as she gradually emerged from sleep and returned to waking consciousness. She had scrambled up in her bed, breathing hard with her back to the wall, and it took Christian a moment to disentangle himself from the blankets she'd flung on top of him.

No danger. Just a nightmare. No one was attacking us.

I took a deep breath to calm my hectic heartbeat. I hadn't had a very effective reaction to the threat, but my body was still letting me know that it had been awake much faster than my mind. I was going to have to work on that.

Christian's touch seemed to enable Lissa to move again, and she reached out to him with arms shaking so badly I thought she wouldn't have been able to stand if she'd tried. Her hold on him was fierce, though, although her breath still came with little whimpering sounds. Over Christian's shoulder, I could see her eyes fixed on Rose. She wasn't crying; there were no tears on her face. There was horror.

This had to have been one hell of a nightmare.

With the rest of us just mutely staring, Rose picked her way through our beddings and limbs to sit down next to her shaking friend on the bed. Lissa looked like Christian's arms were all that held her together as Rose went to gently stroking her back. "Robert?" she asked her quietly. With a shaky intake of breath, Lissa shook her head.

Then I felt Ava's hand slowly sneaking into mine. There was a slightly panicked look in her eyes when I turned to her, and I gave her hand a light squeeze. No one noticed in the dimness of our room.

"You know, back when we had the bond, I always knew when you had dreams this bad," Rose said softly. "Now I don't. So you'll have to talk to us."

Lissa nodded, but it didn't look as though her voice would work at all. She just lay in Christian's arms and let the shaking subside. If she had any strength left in her limbs, he would have her arms imprinted on him in purple tomorrow.

It took a while for her to be able to talk. "I know it was just a dream," she choked out in a whisper. "I know. Just a dream. It was just so…" Her voice broke, and she resumed her hold on Christian.

"Hey, dreams can be scary," Rose soothed. "Believe me, I've had my share of bad dreams. And a little more than just dreams, too. It's okay to freak out. Freak out all you need. We'll catch you."

"I s…saw you-" Lissa was clinging to Christian so desperately that is was heartbreaking to think that one day, he would no longer be there to hold her like this. "I saw you. Dead. You were dead. And I couldn't help you. I couldn't reach you!"

Christian and Rose both clenched their jaws at that. If at all possible, he held her even tighter.

"It… it was Robert. He was killing you. But I couldn't move. I couldn't heal you!"

They told her that it was just a dream. That nothing was going to happen to them. That they were safe, that she wouldn't lose them, she wouldn't see them die. And between Lissa's stammering about watching them die and Rose and Christian's soothing whispers, they managed to calm her to a quiet sobbing hidden away in Christian's arms.

But Ava and I looked at each other, and I knew that her insides were frozen to ice just as mine were. How could this be a mere dream? How could this be a dream, how could we call it a dream when it was Lissa dreaming and we knew that her daughter would be able to bend time and we knew that what she dreamed of would happen?

Lissa had not just heard from the guardians about the deaths of the two people most important in her life.

She had watched them die.

….

Morning routine in a room with six people had the tendency to become overcrowded. Ava and I fled from the room out into the bland motel parking lot, where we perched on a sidewalk and huddled together.

"So the time thing was within her all along," Ava said. "She passed it on to Lily. But she never had an idea that she could do that."

"Better for her. I don't think she'd be functional right now if she knew that this is actually going to happen…"

"It's still happening," Ava exclaimed, her voice slightly shaky. "We have achieved nothing. It's still going to happen, and we're no closer to stopping it than we ever were."

"No," I said with more conviction than I had thought I had. "We're going to stop it. This is not happening. We won't let it."

I could see that Ava was fighting tears.

"She doesn't deserve this," she gulped. "As if it happening once wasn't bad enough. Now she's seeing it in her dreams. I hadn't thought that spirit could be so vindictive."

"Prophetic dreams," I mused. "I wonder if Lily can do that. See the future."

"Maybe it only happens in bouts. Maybe even only once in a decade. Mom didn't know she could do it, I'm sure."

"Hm."

She looked so forlorn. My best friend had always lived with an unhappy mother who had always been struggling to give her daughter the love she needed, and Ava had always thought she knew why, but she hadn't. Not until now had she known what her mom had had to endure to become the woman she'd grown up with. The woman who buried herself into Court work and forgot her children's graduation dates and the names of the guys Lily was dating. A feeling welled up inside of me that I couldn't find a name for, but I could feel myself straightening up a few inches.

"This won't happen. We won't let it," I told her again with all the assertion I could muster. She gave me a wry smile.

"Ava, I'm serious. We sure as hell are not going to let that happen to your mom. Never. I promise you."

Then a voice said: "Hey, you two."

I almost gave a yelp. Christian had an annoying habit of appearing suddenly at exactly the moment you finished a sentence with very tell-tale information in it.

"We're almost done in there. Are you two ready to go?"

"Yes," Ava said without missing a beat. "We've been waiting for you guys. You grown-up people always take to long for everything."

Christian snorted. "What did you say? You need your diapers changed?"

I don't know whether Ava found his face or the thought that he actually would changer her diapers at one point in time more amusing, but the both of them shared a very naughty grin while Christian sat down next to her.

"Are you two alright?" he asked, serious once more. "We're all a little rattled by the night."

"We're fine," Ava assured him. "How's Lissa holding up?"

"She's having difficulties letting go of Rose and me for a prolonged time, but she'll be alright. Distraction will probably do her good."

Lissa stepped out of the room this very moment. She actually looked quite upbeat and joined us energetically on our sidewalk seats.

"I am free," she announced brightly. "I have no Council meeting to go to today. No press conference. No debate, no public event, no secret meeting with the Romanian delegation. I haven't had so much time at my own hands ever since I became queen."

"So you see, Court survives just fine without you," Christian retorted. "So maybe when this is over…"

"We're going to have our recluse," she finished, leaning into him. "And I'm looking forwards to it."

"But for now, you'll have to content yourselves with spending your day off in a car with the lot of us," Rose said from behind us. Of course, where Lissa went, Rose wouldn't be far. "Dimitri's handing in our keys. Let's get moving."

Rose took the wheel this time, and we picked Dimitri up in front of the motel lobby.

"It should only be a few more hours," Rose announced, covering any darker feelings she might have had at nearing the grave of the man she'd killed with what passed for her own guardian mask. Her guardian mask was a lot more cheerful than Dimitri's.

"Maybe we could get breakfast before we get there?" I tentatively dared ask. Why was it always me who had to remember everyone that we needed to feed ourselves? "You know, um, cemeteries aren't the best spot for a picnic…"

"I second that," Rose said at once. Almost as if she had been waiting for someone else to say it first.

There are downsides to belonging to a race of nocturnal creatures. Dhampirs can stand the sun just fine, but it just fits that it is the Moroi, who subsist on blood for their main sustenance anyway, who prefer to start their day at a time when breakfast simply isn't available anywhere this remote. No decent dhampir would mind going to burger king for breakfast at all, but they pick at their food and claim that fries and burgers are a sorry excuse for a breakfast. Well, sorry, Moroi - the vampiric schedule is a concession to you, and it just so happens that toast and eggs are a rare commodity at nine thirty pm, morning in a Moroi and dhampir schedule.

"I don't know why you complain," Rose mumbled through a mouthful of double cheeseburger. "They don't have doughnuts. But do you see me complaining? No!"

"That's because you have no time for complaints in between polishing off your burger and Lissa's fries," Christian commented dryly.

The amount of food in her mouth wouldn't permit Rose to speak, so she looked to Dimitri for support. If she had expected him to defend her way of consuming every morsel of deep-fried food in the vicinity, she was disappointed, if only because Dimitri's manner of eating didn't include making a display of half-chewed potato and meat.

"On the other hand, I think I enjoy these moments," Christian continued, having realized that Rose was momentarily out of the count for battles of the words. "By the way, I always wanted to tell you that doughnuts are a waste of the air it takes to fill the hole in the middle. More fries?"

True to his calculation, Rose used the food-free-mouth time to say 'yes please' instead of countering his doughnut jab, and then stuffed her face with Christian's fries before realizing that her time to stab back had passed. Christian put on his trademark smirk while Rose turned red with annoyance. Lissa and Ava smiled and ate their third fry, and Dimitri and I quietly continued eating.

I wonder what having the Dragomir-Ozera family over for dinner would be like. I mean, the whole family. Lissa and Christian and Lily and Ava. We missed out on a lot of fun by losing Christian and Rose.

But then again, we missed out on a lot of everything because of their deaths.

We were in a good mood when we exited the restaurant, but as soon as we went through the door and entered open territory once again, not only were Rose and Dimitri back in full guardian mode, but even Christian turned more watchful and Lissa turned quieter. These four were used to guarding the precious Moroi in their middle.

We had to walk a half-mile to get to our car, because while this small town did miraculously have a 24-hour restaurant, the place didn't have a parking lot. We crossed the street in a tight group, with Dimitri lagging behind in order to watch our backs. Rose and Christian were walking on either side of Lissa, with Rose's eyes scanning the environment routinely. All the same, we all allowed ourselves this brief moment of merriment, because we knew, there was no pleasure to be found where we were headed.

"You know, what with Anton being here and you no longer needing to economize your magic," Rose mused teasingly to Lissa, "You could try changing your appearance at will instead of, for instance, dyeing your hair for real. Oh, you could try being a redhead. I'd like to see you with red hair!"

Lissa laughed, a pearly sound. "I think my disguises lie more in the eyes of the perceiver than in my conscious effort to choose a hair color."

"Really?" Ava asked curiously. "You just focus on _not_ looking like yourself? I thought it was more like focusing on 'I have short brown hair now' or something."

"I could probably do that," Lissa said. "I've never experimented much. Until now, I always had to make a bit of an effort not to go crazy with spirit use, you see."

"Maybe you could go out in your pajamas," Rose suggested, "and make everyone see-"

"Rose," Dimitri called from behind. His voice was calm as ever, but there was an urgency that instantly made my blood run cold.

"There are Strigoi close by. I saw one to our left."

I would have panicked. If those were my charges running around in the middle of the night in utterly deserted small-town streets, I would have told them to run for their lives and hope to be fast enough. But Rose kept her calm perfectly.

"Stay close together," she instructed the Moroi. Her attentive scanning increased. So did mine, but I could not see anything in the pitch-black beyond the reach of the street lights. I moved close to Ava.

"Once we reach the car, we-"

I only realized why she'd stopped when I heard the banging of body on body from behind. Dimitri was being attacked. 'Engaged in hostile contact,' as my body guarding theory instructor would say. Fighting for our lives, as I would put it.

Two Strigoi appeared on one side of us. Two more on the other.

Now even Rose looked nervous. She had three Moroi to protect, and a guardian novice who was still more of a liability than an asset. It seemed like I was the only one with a sudden desire to hide under my pillow in our group, though; Ava, Lissa and Christian merely moved closer together, shielding Lissa in their middle. She was the only one who didn't have any defense training, magical or otherwise.

Ignoring the churning fear that threatened to cause my burger to make a reappearance, I took the stance ascribed to the second guardian in a two-guardian-several targets formation. Rose to one side of them, I to the other, facing out, towards the threat. I was good in body guarding theory. Straight-A candidate. I had always paid attention, doubting that the real thing would ever be my strong suit.

Strong suit or not, I was facing two Strigoi on my end of the defense formation, and as if that wasn't way over my head already, I could make out the shapes of a few more behind them in the darkness.

A pack. Strigoi hunting in a pack. An occurrence exceedingly rare amongst beings who could barely stay within a two-mile radius from within each other without ripping each other's throat out. I couldn't believe our bad luck.

"We're outnumbered," Rose breathed. "Stay close. Prevent them from sneaking around our defense at all cost."

Her instructions calmed me. I took comfort in the fact that there was a person with me who knew what she was doing. This was just like school.

Well, apart from the fact that the adversaries I was facing weren't school guardians acting the part.

"Rose," Lissa suddenly said. "There's a church on the other side of the street."

A church! A flat white building that I hadn't even noticed before. Strigoi wouldn't be able to enter it. Holy ground – creatures of pure evil couldn't cross the threshold of a house of worship. We would be safe there, to wait out the morning light.

The glitch was the bunch of monsters separating us from the praised heaven of safety.

"Run towards it," Rose whispered, so low that I had to strain my ears to understand it. Strigoi had finer hearing than we had. If they heard our plan, we would be lost. "I will make a move at one – two – THREE!" She yelled the last word and sprang into action. The same instant, Lissa, Christian, Ava and I started making a dash for the other side of the street, and I silently prayed that we would not encounter extra precautions to protect that safe haven. I could kick open a normal door, but not a steel door or something.

Rose jumped the two Strigoi at the same time, swiveling between them so fast they both had their hands full with her. The protection of the Moroi was now solely at my hands. I risked turning around briefly to ascertain that the Strigoi on the other side hadn't cottoned on to our plan, but they had Rose to deal with before they could make a move on us now. Frantically scanning the environment with nothing of Rose or Dimitri's calm collectedness, I herded the Moroi towards the church, away from the monsters. It briefly occurred to me that I had no idea where Dimitri was anymore.

We had reached the other side of the street when one of the Strigoi had managed to circle Rose and close in on us. Before he could approach any further, he burst into flames. Christian stumbled, and I noticed now that he was also trying to help Rose by having small but distracting wisps of fire pop up on the attacking Strigois' bodies. I made him keep running.

All we had between us and the church doors now was a flight of stairs and the strip of flat stones leading towards the entrance. Two Strigoi were down, but two more had taken it upon themselves to keep Rose busy and away from us, while the others came at us with their inhuman speed that exceeded anything a dhampir could match by far. Ava stumbled up the steps closely followed by Lissa and Christian when the first one reached me. Stakeless, unarmed, coward me. Had I fought these creatures from hell before? How had I done it?

I gave it a good punch and surprisingly managed to shove it a few feet away, causing it to tumble into another one and slowing their approach. All three Moroi had mounted the stairs now. Lissa tripped and fell, and I kicked the outstretched arm that was trying to grab her away while she picked herself up, using the higher ground for my advantage.

I needed a weapon. Midstride, I plucked a metal garden… thing from the ground and plunged it into an approaching monster's heart. I simultaneously realized that it was a solar light and that the Strigoi would be incapacitated for a while. Rose had finished her two opponents and was racing over to us.

It was with Rose almost within arm's reach that three Strigoi jumped me from the side. They had given the fight a wide berth and snuck up to surprise us. Well, they had succeeded. One was leaping towards Lissa, who lagged behind the others, and two more were taking off towards Ava and Christian.

I had a split second to decide on which way to go, and before that had even passed, I found myself running towards Ava and then instantly remembering that if something happened to her mom, there would be no more Ava. I struck both Strigoi hard enough to make them take a step back, then used my momentum to collide mid-stride with the – thankfully wooden and creaky – door of the sacred building, managing to unhinge it. With the way to safety open for the Moroi, I turned back, only to realize that neither Christian nor Ava were entering the church.

Lissa. Had I condemned the queen of the Moroi to a horrible end as a Strigoi blood source because my priorities had been to my friend? Then I heard Rose scream "Get in!" and I realized that my mom had reached the queen in time. Either way, there was nothing I could do for her now. My responsibilities were for my friend and her father. Christian seemed to realize this the same moment that I did, and with a face contorted by anguish, gave the door a final kick and pulled a struggling Ava in with him.

They were safe. I still had three Strigoi against me, including the one I had pierced with a garden light. He had recovered and was angrier than ever. I wouldn't last long against those.

Behind me, I heard Ava's piercing screams. Crying for them to go safe Lissa. I pictured Christian holding her back to prevent her from leaving the sanctuary of sacred ground to go where she couldn't help much anyway, while three pairs of Strigoi hands tried to reach for my easily breakable neck. I should leave them and save myself within the holy walls, seeing as I couldn't kill them without a stake or at least a weapon to decapitate them anyway, but my instinct told me not to trust the church boundaries completely. There was a threat, and it had to be held at bay.

Just as I realized that my skills were hopelessly outclassed by every single one of my opponents, one of them suddenly found his clothes catching fire. While the second one quickly jumped out of the way, I used the third one's distraction to catapult him as far away from me as I could. Flames engulfed him when he landed at good distance.

"Get them away from the building," I heard Christian hiss in hard voice behind me.

I understood. The church was built from wood. It wouldn't be much of a shelter if Christian accidently burned it to the ground trying to hit the Strigoi.

But then, Ava stepped up. "Never mind that," she growled. I heard something sizzle behind me, and the two remaining Strigoi lit up like the first one, to be reduced to smoldering piles of charred flesh within seconds. Then a hand grabbed me from behind and I fell backwards into the dim interior of the church.

* * *

 **That moment when you subject a fictional character to horrible things and feel like a jerk for it... I feel awful for giving poor Lissa that dream, even though it's still only a dream for now.**

 **(And then I think, for heaven's sake, get a grip, girl, if you can't deal with one nightmare, things are looking bad for your future in fiction. What would G.R.R. Martin say?)**

 **But who knows what I might or might not do to her while she's out there with Strigoi on the loo** **se... ;-)**

 **Well, give a little kitten who thinks she's a sadistic tyrant writer what she deserves. Whatever that is. Review!**


	16. That Would Be Weird

"Lissa is still out there!" I protested, scrambling up again. "And Rose and Dimitri!"

"You don't have a stake. You're not making things better by endangering your own life." Christian's voice was hard. I was pretty sure that going out and endangering his own life was exactly what he would be doing now if he hadn't known that Ava and I wouldn't let him go out alone.

For now, we were trapped in the church. We lit a few candles, not daring to turn on the light so as not to attract attention. Although, if the noise of a full-blown battle hadn't woken up the neighbors, I doubted that a little light shining through the church windows at night would. It probably helped that with houses so far apart as they were here, there were no neighbors to speak of. Which was something to be thankful for, because the last thing we wanted was police officers nosing around at night and providing easy Strigoi fodder. And discovering the three frightened fugitives huddled in a corner of the local church, of course.

"I'll have to congratulate you on your water magic use," Christian intoned in a dead voice. "I wouldn't have dared to set those Strigoi on fire if you hadn't fire-proofed the walls." It must be torture for him not to be out there looking for Lissa now. He was here for us. Ava stayed because she was reasonable enough to see that a water user was no match for a Strigoi.

I stayed because I was scared as hell.

Ava said something in reply, but I was only half listening.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled numbly. I should have kept them _all_ safe. Rose had relied on me.

"Are you kidding?" Ava retorted, sounding weary. "What are you apologizing for?"

"I should have-"

"You did a guardian's job," Christian cut me off. Neither one of them was in the mood for my self-pity. "And one hell of a job you did."

"I shouldn't have let them come between us," I continued miserably in spite of myself. "If only I could hold up to theory. Then maybe I would be able to do a proper job."

Christian mustered enough energy to raise his chin from where it rested on his knees in order to give me an incredulous look.

"Anton? Are you joking?"

"You think I'm _joking_?" For a second, I almost hoped that anger would wipe away my misery.

"Then you seriously need a reality check," Christian snorted. "Because you were dropping Strigoi in true Belikov manner out there. You're a _novice_. What are you beating yourself up for? You're a bloody guardian prodigy."

Now it was my turn to snort. "And you're neither novice nor guardian. You have no idea."

"Don't get into it, Christian," Ava advised. The look she was giving me was unnervingly familiar, even though I didn't know what it meant.

"It's still a few hours till sunrise," she said. "If you want to argue, you're going to make it a very uncomfortable few hours."

"Let's hope the others come back earlier than that," Christian said in that dead voice again. I knew that my worries were nothing compared to his. My parents were guardians. The likelihood of them surviving the night was high. Lissa, on the other hand…

"I like that we're stranded in a church, of all places," Ava sighed. "I mean, setting aside the fact that it's the only place we're safe from Strigoi – I find churches strangely comforting." She gave a small laugh. "Must be hereditary."

Again, Christian lifted his head from his knees. And I instantly knew that she had said something wrong.

"What?"

"I like chapels. They make me feel safe."

"Why?"

"Oh… Don't ask…" Ava faltered when she caught his eyes. He was staring at her.

And he was totally weirded out.

"What's wrong?" Ava whispered, but by the tone of her voice I could tell that she already knew.

She had betrayed herself.

And here I had thought that being stuck in a church as our only means of survival whilst three of our company were unaccounted for and possibly dead meant that the situation couldn't get any worse.

"But…" Christian stammered, wide-eyed. "You said your dad had _died_ …"

And it was _still_ getting worse.

While I'm sure Ava had been frantically searching her mind for a way to make Christian believe that he had drawn the wrong conclusions, this one sentence left her completely frozen in shock. There was nothing that would tell Christian that he was right more than her stunned silence.

"You said that when we first met… you were crying, and you said that…"

Say something, I urged Ava silently. Say something, anything, don't let him continue like this.

But unexpectedly, Christian changed tracks completely. "That means Lissa is still alive, doesn't it?" he said, sobered. "I mean, if you're still here, then she… That is, if she is your… Is she? Tell me that she is, please!"

Ava nodded. Not even for the sake of shielding him from knowledge of the future could she keep this consolation from him.

"We discussed this," Christian said. It was like knowing that Lissa was still alive out there had given him the ability to think perfectly clearly in the midst of the life-and-death revelations he was confronted with. He no longer stared at Ava. He was sitting up straight, frowning into the darkness that surrounded us. "We talked about this when we found out about Anton. But we both thought that if we'd ever have children, we would love them, and they would love us."

"You read too much into auras," I told him flatly. Ava loved her mom, difficult as it may be, and she loved Christian already. Ava was a complicated being. You couldn't discover everything she held dear in her heart just by looking at her aura. That might work with me, but certainly not with her.

Then, a bang sounded at the door that we had haphazardly put back into its hinges. We all leaped to our feet, ready to fight off any Strigoi who ventured into our sanctuary.

"It's us," Rose's voice sounded muffled from outside. "Don't torch us, please."

Cries of relief escaped all three of us simultaneously.

We raced each other down the aisle to reach the door, which creaked and swayed dangerously on its damaged hold. Rose appeared in the crack. I took hold of the door, pulling it inward to make room for a person to pass. I had expected Rose to enter, but it was Lissa who appeared in the doorway now. She looked scared and tired, but I could see no injuries, and she stumbled into Christian's arms the second she was through the door.

"Keep her safe, we have some more to get rid of," Rose said curtly. I could just barely make out Dimitri's form behind her before they both disappeared into the darkness once more.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Christian asked Lissa, pressing her tightly to himself. She shook her head, only her blonde hair visible, her face buried into his neck.

"No, Rose kept me safe. Only we had to keep going away from you – Rose was making me run while Dimitri fought so he could finished off the Strigoi one at a time. We had to go back a long way when it was safe enough."

The noises of a fight rang out outside, followed by the distinct squish of a silver stake sliding into an undead heart. Then Rose reappeared in the door.

"Look, I know we're safe in there, but we shouldn't be here when the local priest arrives in the morning and sees what we've done to the place. Dimitri's getting the car, and then we'll be off. There aren't enough Strigoi left to give us trouble on the way out."

She was looking rough, but battle had put a glint in her eyes. Awesome guardian that she was, she could probably have gone on like this forever without tiring. I had no idea how many Strigoi she and Dimitri had slain tonight – two guardians, against more Strigoi than I could count. With a Moroi to protect, who didn't have a scratch on her.

I thought I had had my share of heart stopping moments for the night, but Rose still had one up her sleeve for me. I froze when she made a beeline for me, picturing the ways she was going to tell me off for my blunders in defending my temporary charges, but she didn't even stop when she was in front of me. She put her arms up and around me and gave me a fierce, crushing hug.

"Thank you, Anton," she said. "For keeping them safe."

Over her shoulder, I could see Ava smiling fondly at my bafflement. I put my hand on Rose's back to return the hug. She left me paralyzed when she let go of me, all too quickly.

"Dimitri's here," she said. "Let's go."

The hundred feet to the car were an eerie reminder of how this place had looked like earlier, crawling with monsters. Now, there were scorch marks on the ground and some bushes and patches of grass with clear evidence of fire. The flower beds bordering the entrance were smashed, trampled over and flattened where bodies had fallen. But there were no bodies visible. Rose and Dimitri had been busy.

We took our places in the car and Dimitri sped away from the curb, leaving the church and the mess we had made of it behind. None of us looked back.

I wished we could leave the mess we had made in our minds behind as easily. I wished I could open a valve that would vent all the hidden fears and untold emotions and share them, unburden them and take my own share of the weight. The silence and tranquility in the SUV felt impossible, the steady hum of the motor the only sound. Ava's blind stare and rigid posture was killing me. She hadn't said a word after Christian had… found out.

A few hours in the car took the edge off everybody's state of mind. Weariness had taken over when Dimitri informed us that we were going no further today. "We're in no shape for what's to come," he said. "And where we're going, we'd better go with our minds in the game." Then he added: "And we'd better overthink our choice of schedule."

It wasn't long until sunrise anyway. We turned in in another motel, where Lissa and Rose, who hadn't gotten much sleep last night, went out like a light, and the rest of us pretended to get some rest.

Then, it was bright sunlight out, and I realized that I had fallen asleep after all.

"Good morning, sunshine," Rose chimed. I squinted up at her standing over me, toothbrush in hand.

"Since when does morning for us mean actual morning?" I groaned, stretching my tired limbs. It looked like I had slept longer than the others. The beds were empty and tousled, all activity centered around the bathroom. I saw Lissa and Ava trying to squeeze past each other as both passed the door, Lissa in, Ava out.

"Since we decided to switch schedules," Rose explained. "It's too dangerous out there at night. As we've seen."

I grumbled. "That was exceptionally bad luck."

But nothing would save me from having to peel myself from my covers, so I made myself get up, wondering how a bed on the floor went from uncomfortably hard when you went to sleep, to tantalizingly warm and soft when you had to get up after not nearly enough sleep.

It felt strange to pretend that the time for sleeping was over when it was barely past midnight in our usual schedule. But once I stood outside and held my face into the warmth of the midday sun, I decided that it was worth the sleepiness. I rarely got the opportunity to enjoy the daytime sunlight out in the open.

Rose was the last of us to step out into the brightness, closing the door behind her. She tossed the room keys to Dimitri to hand them back, but Christian snatched them out of the air and wordlessly started off into the direction of the reception desk.

"What's bitten him?" Rose commented as everyone watched him go in confusion. "Did you have a fight?"

"No," Lissa replied, sounding slightly worried. "He's been a little off since last night."

Ava avoided my eyes, but I knew exactly what she was thinking anyway. She was feeling responsible for burdening Christian with the knowledge of his impending death; she was blaming herself for letting something slip that made him figure it out. It wouldn't be easy to take this weight off of her.

"Okay," Rose said once we were all folded into the car. "Off we go."

With Rose driving and Dimitri helping with directions, they took us a short way on a highway before pulling into an exit. Half an hour later, they stopped in front of a line of neat, off-white row houses.

"This is not a parking lot," Christian stated.

"No," Dimitri agreed. "It is not."

"It used to be," Rose added.

"So this is the place?" Lissa asked confusedly. "There used to be a motel and a parking lot here?" Neither a motel nor a parking lot were anywhere to be seen.

"There wasn't much of a parking lot left after Victor was done with it," Dimitri remarked. "He used earth magic against Rose. I guess it wasn't worth salvaging."

"Well, if the place Victor died is gone," Lissa said slowly, "then there would be no reason for Robert to come here, wouldn't there?"

"I guess not," Rose said, sounding defeated. It was only after Dimitri's next words that I realized why.

"Then the only other place we can go to look for clues is the grave."

The grave. I wouldn't have minded not having to go there. As it was, we had no other choice. Dimitri swapped seats with Rose, exchanging the passenger's seat for the driver's, and off we went, again.

"That's it," Dimitri suddenly announced, shaking me out of the reverie I had sunken into.

"What's it?" Lissa asked. We were standing in front of a small lake, on a graveled parking lot bordering a narrow road which was marked as leading into 'Mareenee Grove National Park'. The road let into a lush woodland area.

"We needed a place where it was unlikely anybody would ever dig up… the body," Dimitri explained reluctantly. "What with preservation laws in national parks…"

"So that's it," Rose repeated. "You know, Dimitri, it might have been helpful if you'd told us in advance that the burial place was a few hundred square hectares. We could have brought binoculars."

Dimitri commented her somewhat forced quip with a raised eyebrow. "I can take us to the exact location, of course, but we will have to walk."

"Wait a moment," Lissa said. "I know right now we only want to find out if Robert comes here at all, but what do we do if he is there right now? What if we run into him? We can't be as unprepared as last time."

"Well… we catch him," I said. It was probably time to lay open our weapons. I fished for our backpack and rummaged in the depths of it. It seemed to have become bigger, or maybe just more untidy with the way Ava and I had to care for our belongings. "With this," I finally produced the silver chain with a flourish.

"A bicycle chain?"

"It's charmed," Lissa exclaimed. The way she narrowed her eyes told me that she was looking at the chain through the haze of spirit. "A containment charm," she judged appreciatively. "I should have thought of that. Robert will be rendered powerless if he is surrounded by this charm. Good spellwork. Who did this for you?"

Thankfully, Lissa was too absorbed into the chain to really notice our lack of a coherent answer. Christian did notice, and he gave us a very piercing look.

Dimitri showed us to a small path that led from the roadside into the forest. Another reason for our change of schedule became pretty obvious now: hiking here at night would have been suicide, not only because of the much higher Strigoi risk, but also because of the risk of breaking one's neck. I was glad when the winding path opened into a broader serpentine way that allowed for more comfortable progress.

The downside of the necessary sunlight soon became apparent, too; the Moroi found it difficult to keep up under the glaring sun. Even though the path was shaded by a canopy of leaves, enough rays found their way through to bother them. They took care to cover themselves, and Dimitri had had the foresight to bring water, but we made slow progress.

"Are you okay?" I asked Ava. She nodded, but eyed the distance between herself and the rest of our group with irritation. She was lagging behind, and she didn't like it.

"Look, Ava," I started, but she interrupted me before I could go anywhere.

"I know, Anton," she said. "I know what you're going to say. Don't beat yourself up, you couldn't have done anything, it's not your fault. And yes, I had no idea that what I said would give me away, but it's still unforgivable. I practically gave my dad a death sentence. I made him live with the knowledge and fear of dying young. I'm not going to be able to fix this."

"Wow," I exclaimed. Her outburst caught me by surprise, seeing as I hadn't gotten more than two words out of her since yesterday. She hadn't exactly been on speaking terms with the world. "Hold on a second. What happened to us stopping all of this? That's what we're here for! You're going to fix it! He's not going to die!"

"And what if we can't stop it?" she asked.

I had no answer to this.

In spite of the fact that our final destination was a graveside and that my best friend was harboring depressingly morbid thoughts, I couldn't help myself: I enjoyed the hike. The air was warm and the sun was dotting the lush green forest with brightly yellow dots, and the many-voiced chorus of birdsong combined with the sound of our footsteps on the earthy ground was soothing. If it hadn't been for the Moroi's obvious struggle with the sun, I would have suggested we take daytime hikes more often. Maybe I would have to suggest that to Dimitri and Rose, who seemed to secretly enjoy themselves as much as I did.

My high spirits dropped abruptly when Dimitri left the track and started weaving his way through the trees. They stood widely apart, so it was easy going, but it called our destination to my mind with a sudden and jarring clarity.

Dimitri stopped in front of a patch of forest that looked exactly like what we'd been hiking through for the last fifteen minutes.

"This is it?" Rose asked gloomily, coming to a halt behind him.

"This is the place," Dimitri nodded.

The grave itself wasn't visible; the uneven mossy ground stretched on between scraggly trees, chirping birds and gentle sunlight creating an oddly peaceful atmosphere.

"So what are we looking for?" Lissa asked. "Footprints?" She was out of breath, dropping down on the ground the instant she arrived with Christian by her side.

We made the Moroi get some rest in the shade while we went looking for anything suspicious – footprints, broken twigs, fabric snatched on branches, recently dislocated trunks or stones or ripped-out moss. But we found nothing.

"That doesn't mean anything," Lissa said. "It might have been a while since he's been here. Maybe we should ask the rangers if they've seen him."

There was nothing more we could do here, and none of us was sorry to leave the place. Peaceful though the summer day made it seem, there was something sinister to a place you knew held the grave of a man who had died a violent death.

The decent was easier on the Moroi, and faster. Ava started off fixing Christian with a determined look, and she made sure to walk close by him regardless of his pace. He glared at her, but that didn't dissuade her. Finally, he slowed down with us, dropping far enough behind the others so we could talk.

"I'm so sorry," Ava started in barely more than a whisper. "I didn't want you to know. I thought we were doing anything we could so you wouldn't find out… and so it wouldn't happen at all-"

"I think you owe me a few answers," Christian cut her off. He kept his gaze straight ahead.

Ava looked unsure, but she said: "What do you want to know?"

"Does Lissa die, too?"

Ava swallowed. "No."

His jaw clenched treacherously. "So you just don't like her?"

She looked at him from the side. "Why do you think I don't like her?"

"We found out about Anton because he had love for Rose, remember?"

"I'm here because I care about you," Ava said, trying to keep her voice calm. "I'm here to stop Robert. If my aura shows no straightforward love, you shouldn't let that blind you."

There was hurt in Christian's eyes while he probably imagined what the mother of his future children would have to go through to make her not inspire love in them.

"Rose," he said, though. "Don't tell me that that's just a misunderstanding, too. Lissa checked and double checked. There is nothing amounting to the affection you have for Dimitri." He was addressing me now. "Does she die, too?"

My silence was all the answer he needed.

"We can't leave Lissa alone like this." You would expect desperation from a guy who knew he was going to die in the near future, but there was only pensive sadness and the beginning of a determination that would likely stop at nothing short of moving mountains.

"Well," Ava said decisively. "As Anton just reminded me: we're here to change that. If things go according to plan, none of this is going to happen. And if things don't go according to plan, we probably messed things up so much by now that nothing is going to happen the way we remember it anyway. So, for better or worse, we actually have no idea what is going to happen in the future anymore."

"You say that as if it's a good thing," I muttered. I could only think about the fact that Ava and I would be screwed if things happened a little too soon in this timeline.

Christian gave her a wry smile. "You know, that is a more comforting thought than the alternative. So, in the vein of maintaining my mental health, I am going to believe that you two have no idea about the future whatsoever. Now."

He stopped in his tracks, causing Ava and me to do the same. Taking a deep breath, he turned to face Ava.

"Okay, so, this didn't exactly take a good start. Right. You're my…" For a moment, he held his breath and didn't seem to find the words. Then he exhaled loudly. "I can't bring myself to say it. And please don't say the other d-word either."

Ava grinned. "Nope. That would be really weird."

Christian made a grimace that was somewhere between incredulousness and exasperation. "We're having a family reunion on the way back from the grave of the man our guardian and friend accidently killed a few years ago. Also, we're trying to catch the brother of said deceased who, I assume, I have to blame for my impeding demise. Which we all agreed isn't going to happen." He shook his head. "But in your view, it only gets to be weird when we start calling each other by denominations of familial relationship."

He continued walking, because Rose, Lissa and Dimitri had stopped ahead to wait for us to catch up. Still shaking his head absently, he said: "I think I like your definition of weird."

"That is something that definitely runs in the family," Ava deadpanned.

Lissa looked a little confused when Christian, as soon as he'd reached her, slung his arm around her waist and made her walk in an embrace, but she seemed pleased that his broody self from the morning had brightened up.

By the time we reached the car, it was evident that after so much exposure to sunlight and the exertion of the hike, the Moroi needed time to rest and blood a lot sooner than we had thought they would.

"We'll get blood first and then we can come back here and question the rangers," Rose suggested, taking her place at the wheel. "It will take some time, because the next town big enough to have a feeding center is probably miles away, but, while we're at it, how about lunch for those of us who prefer a non-fluid diet? Or is it dinner time now?"

"On a human schedule, it would be too late for lunch and too early for dinner," Lissa laughed. "You need the afternoon version of brunch."

"It's called doughnut time for Rose," Christian teased.

Their bickering made me forget the time, and we were reaching the suburbs of a promisingly sized town soon enough. The moment we rolled into the city boundaries and passed the road sign indicating the town, hilarity ensured. The town was called Adrian.

"They should have moved here," Rose laughed.

Then in a soundlessness that left no room for a warning, the front of the car lurched upwards for no apparent reason, and we hung suspended in midair for a breathless second before gravity decided that the way to go was down. A deafening crash ended the unnatural silence, and the whole car balanced on its rear end for one endless heartbeat, pressing us into our seats, before we toppled over backwards. With deafening screams of bending metal, the world spun around, up turning into down and roof turning into ground. I slid down my seat head over heels, and with a last sickening lurch, the day turned dark.

* * *

 **Well, I am a sucker for cliffhangers...**

 **Some of you suggested a little sneak peak into Lily's time. I like the idea...might do one... just for fun :-)**


	17. Safe in Separation

I'm not a pro in physics. In fact, sciences aren't really my thing. Probably because math and numbers are involved, and they tend to get all scrambled in my head. So, if it comes to calculating the impact of a heavy object falling to the ground, count on me to get it all wrong.

Even I could, however, foresee that a car turning over and tumbling on its hood would be no pleasant experience for its passengers. We would be squished under the weight of the bottom crashing down, our heads bashed in and our bodies compressed to half their size. We would be a bloody and disgusting mess that firemen or paramedics would have to cut out of the mangled pieces of the car. And, by the way, we would all be dead.

Either my knowledge of physics was tremendously worse than I'd thought, or someone was bending the laws of nature – but either way, none of this happened. When the balance tipped, my body, rigid as if made of steel, was pressed into the seat like it was when a car accelerated. Then I felt myself slowly sliding upwards, but upwards was the new down. The car lowered itself to the ground, making us scramble for a grip on our seats or door handles or even push our hands up at the roof. We turned on the axle of the rear end, falling gently, then car roof met concrete and the window panes exploded in a spray of shards. Then, kind of anticlimactic, the vehicle settled down, coming to lie on its hood upside down on the pavement with a gentle jerk. We were hanging down our seats. Unharmed.

I would probably later imagine all the things that could have happened, had one of us not been buckled up. For now, my mind tried to make sense of the world's sudden shift in gravity. I hadn't even heard anybody screaming. The only things I could hear for a second was everybody's panicked breathing and the low complaints of metal feeling abused. No one moved. One of Rose's hands was still gripping the steering wheel with crushing force, the other one was pressed against the roof-turned-floor.

"Lissa, did you do that?" I didn't understand Dimitri's question, and it seemed starkly out of place with a view to our current suspended situation.

"No," Lissa replied in a shaky voice. "I didn't do anything."

Dimitri growled. "Get out of the car."

Before I could even think 'easier said than done', he had reversed himself and was kicking the remaining glass out of the frame so he could crawl out. Rose was twisting around, trying to get a glimpse of her passengers behind her. As she assured herself that no one was injured, so did I; no one was unconscious or bleeding badly; there were no wounds at all, at least not visibly at first glance. Indeed, it looked like we had all survived the accident without so much as a scratch on us.

I reached up with one hand and fumbled for my seatbelt buckle. Ava's hair was hanging down in a blonde fan as she did the same. She managed to free herself and slowed her fall with her arm. Wriggling to get her feet underneath her body, she righted herself. Then she reached for my buckle, and I almost tumbled on top of her.

"You alright?"

Squatting in the middle of the debris of mangled car and broken glass, our faces were mere inches apart. I nodded.

A crash sounded in the word outside the wreckage and jolted us out of our calm reprieve.

"Robert," Ava said, and the one word frightened us more than being thrown around in a car.

We struggled out of the sharp-edged, broken windows.

Dimitri and Rose stood on the street, their backs to the car, and at first I could make out nothing indicating a threat. Then I saw the dent the size of a rugby ball in the car next to Rose. And noticed the tension radiating in waves from Rose and Dimitri's ready battle stances. They made danger palpable like a scent in the air.

"This is Robert's doing," Rose informed us tersely once Ava and I stood beside her. Christian was still in the car; he seemed to be stuck somewhere, with Lissa crouching next to him, trying to help him out. Ava looked from them to us, then scanned our surroundings. I did likewise, but there was nothing to be seen. The neighborhood was eerily quiet. Large, uninviting houses with doors tightly closed surrounded us. Wouldn't people have heard the crash?

"He must be hiding in a building," Dimitri growled.

Then suddenly, an ear-splitting noise nearly made my heart stop; Dimitri snatched Rose to the ground with him; and the scream of bending metal exploded once again around us. The sound stopped as abruptly as it had come. When I looked to where Rose had been standing, another dent disfigured the car at exactly that spot.

I had no idea what kind of power Robert was using. Compressed air? Compressed spirit? Magical laser beams? But it sure as hell could do damage.

Rose took one look at the wreckage and I could see the realization in her eyes: people could die in her vicinity when Robert attacked. Her friends could die. Christian was still in the car, Lissa and Ava kicking and jerking at the seats and metal to get him out. The next blast of energy could ignite the car into a ball of heat and flame if the fuel caught fire.

The decision in her eyes was followed by a brief – very brief – apologetic glance to Dimitri. In that moment, both he and I could read her thoughts with a terrifying clarity: She would run. She wouldn't let her friends die when the attack was meant for her and for her only.

"No," Dimitri uttered, and it sounded as if he was close to choking. But Rose had made her choice. One last look to her friend and queen and the others at the car – and she took off at full tilt across the lawn of the closest house.

For a moment, I was sure that Dimitri was going to follow her. I was sure that he was going to leave not only his own charge, his assigned Moroi whom he had sworn to protect even at the cost of his own life, but also the queen of the Moroi race, the most precious and important person in the whole world of the Moroi and dhampir race, alone and trapped in an upturned car that might explode every minute.

He had sworn to protect them at the cost of his life. He had not sworn to give up the life of his love.

But he didn't. A tiny flame snaked out from underneath the engine hood, and Dimitri forced his gaze away from Rose and went to the rescue of the Moroi family of whose bonds he knew nothing. He turned away from his love. He must have known that if Lissa died, if he let her die, he would lose Rose, too. He would lose her either way.

So I did what he couldn't do.

Ava was safe. Christian would be safe in time with Dimitri's help. If anything happened to them, he would be of so much more help than I would.

I bolted. Ava didn't notice. She was absorbed into her struggle against the twisted metal of the car. I was halfway across the lawn on Rose's heels when I heard Dimitri scream my name. I couldn't see them, but I knew what was happening. Ava would try to follow me. Dimitri would hold her back. She wouldn't be able to keep up anyway. And she wouldn't be safe.

Rose disappeared around the corner of another house up ahead. I pushed myself to my limits, which, to my dismay, were uncomfortably limiting. I rounded the corner just as half the wall of the building collapsed, and when an avalanche of bricks came down behind me, I discovered that I could go a little faster still. I barely made it out of harm's way, one brick painfully nicking the side of my calf.

I stumbled, and suddenly, Rose was by my side, steadying me.

"What the hell are you doing, Anton," she hissed as she pulled me into a run with her.

"Not leaving you alone!"

"He wants me, you could have been safe!"

"I know!"

"Stay!"

"Just keep running!"

And run we did. I had no idea how Robert could be following us so fast. Windows exploded into our faces. Branches fell, beams of energy hit the walls in a spray of mortar. We raced along garden paths, jumped over hedges and front gates, weaved our way across flower beds and stone gardens. We tried to be unpredictable, never running straight, afraid that the spirit laser would pierce a hole through us. We disappeared around houses and garden sheds, ducked behind walls and sped over empty stretches. Then one window pane received a blast of magic and gave a shudder and a bump, but it did not explode. A front gate opened to swing in our way, but it was slow.

"Keep running straight ahead," I panted to Rose. "We're outrunning him. We're almost out of his range."

We didn't stop until we had brought a good mile more between us and where we assumed Robert's location was. We must be nearing the city center, or else left the area that had fallen under his sleeping spell. People milled about, stepping out of our way as we sped along. Rose halted me when we almost ran into a car, skidding around a corner.

"I think we lost him," she gasped.

I nodded, as out of breath as she was. All the same, I drew her with me at a brisk walk. I couldn't shake the feeling that I had eyes on me. I was feeling far from safe.

"How did we not outrace him sooner?" Rose asked me in a low voice. The sidewalks were busy now. We passed people with shopping bags or coffee cups in their hands, people who stopped to look at a window display or milled in groups to chat.

"I was wondering the same," I replied. "Maybe he was on the roofs. As a telekinetic, he could have prevented himself from falling. Maybe even levitate himself from roof to roof."

"Oh, now he can fly? Really?" Rose looked angry at Robert for outsmarting her like this. "Well, so much about finding him. He found us."

"And he's hunting us," I added gloomily. "If he found us once, he can probably find us again. Maybe he's only not attacking us right now because there are too many uninvolved people around."

"At least he's not dropping bodies left and right in his craze to kill me," Rose said. Her face was set in a tight scowl, but her tone was slightly desperate. "The others were alright, back there, weren't they?"

"As far as I could see, they were." I tried my best to calm her agitation. "Christian was still stuck, but they were going to get him out easily enough with Dimitri."

"They were safer without me," Rose said. "Robert wanted me, so they were out of harm's way if they weren't with me, so I had to get away from them. I didn't…"

"I know you didn't abandon them," I replied. "Rose, that's kind of obvious. You don't need to explain."

"I just hope they are safe." Her voice was edged with worry and guilt. And frustration. Running away from the people she wanted to protect instead of charging the threat head on must be incredibly frustrating for her.

"Rose." I stopped. It felt a little funny, but I took her shoulders and turned her to face me, promptly realizing as I did so that I was taller than her. "They all knew what they were getting themselves into. You did what you could so nobody would get hurt. And nobody did get hurt. You need to stop worrying about them. There's nothing we can do for them now, and with Robert after you, they are as safe as they can be. We have to think of a way out of this."

She blinked a few times, the crack in her composure already sealing. "You're right. We need a way out of this. And by the way, why is there a _we_ here?"

She made me walk again.

"I told you, I didn't want to leave you alone."

"Anton, you're a pretty decent guy, but that was probably the silliest thing you've ever done. I got away from the rest of you so you'd be safe. That doesn't work when you're following me."

"Yes, but it's already been shown that you're not going to be able to do this on your own. Remember, Rose? The discussion we had about us needing Moroi to deal with Moroi magic? It only lasted several hours."

"Ugh. I wanted to forget that."

"Because anything that you can't plough through all by yourself is not part of how you see the world, right?"

"I am not going to get my friends killed. No one's going to die in my stead."

"Jeez, Rose, maybe if you'd accept that others are just as capable of dealing with dangerous things as you are, no one will have to die!"

I had stopped again. We had raised our voices, and if I didn't want to be shipped off to a mental institution, I had better lower it again. And whispering while weaving through a crowd was kind of challenging.

Rose was glinting at me angrily, but I tried not to let that daunt me.

"For once, just accept our help." There was an intensity in my voice that almost surprised me. "You have three capable magic users and two other fighters at hand to help you get through this. If you don't cooperate, they're endangering themselves for nothing."

Rose sighed. She avoided looking at me. "You know that I'm fully intending to ditch them and get on by myself, don't you?"

"That wasn't hard to guess."

"And you're included in the ditching."

"Neither was that."

She watched the passers-by with a scowl.

"But you know I'm right," I pressed.

"Well, you have some good points. But I have been known to ignore reason."

"Not this time."

"What makes you so sure?"

I grinned. "You'd have used the big crowd that just passed us to lose me if you hadn't already decided to stay."

She frowned fiercely to hide that I'd caught her, and stalked on.

"Hmp. Adrian. I'm going to tell him his city is a spirit user infested dump," she grumbled as she went. "Let's go find the feeding center. The others will have to show up there before long."

I hurried to follow her through the flurry of people. "You'll want to keep a low profile if there are any other Moroi or dhampir around, though. You know, you're kind of a public figure."

She gave me a scolding look. "I know that just fine. And you stay close to me. We don't want to get separated as well."

She looped an arm around my elbow, and the way she kept me close was so natural that I just couldn't help thinking how protective and motherlike she behaved. My inner voice came up with a reply that it would really not be wise to say out loud.

 _Don't say it, Anton. Don't say it!_

I said it. "Don't worry, Mom."

I was grinning mischievously when she fixed me with narrowed eyes. "Don't make fun because I care."

"No, I make fun because you sound like you want me to hold your hand so that little Anton doesn't get lost."

"You're making it sound like a good idea."

But she smiled when she walked on, and her arm pulled me a little bit closer. To the passers-by who brushed us on the sidewalk, we might look like brother and sister. To me – it already felt like mother and son.

"You know, now that by your own choice you and I and the rest of the gang are inseparable," Rose began, and I wasn't sure whether she as teasing or not. "You might want to tell me what you and Lissa and Christian have been hatching out."

"What? We're not hatching out anything."

"Any fool would have figured out that something is going on by now. And don't think I'm a fool, Anton. I'm actually a lot less stupid than people think I am."

"People think you're stupid? They must be really brave. Or suicidal."

"Well, it's Christian, mostly. And he's more suicidal than brave."

"Look, shoes on sale!"

"Wow, those are… Anton! Don't try to distract me!"

"Works pretty well."

"No, it doesn't. What's going on? I've seen the way you all look up when Dimitri or I come in. You have a secret. You have a secret from Dimitri and me, and I don't like that."

"Rose, it was just this Robert business. We discussed it without you, because we discussed how to protect you. But now we told you everything, so no secrets."

"Oh my. You're a pitiful liar."

"Did you just insult me?"

"I'm so going to find out." Before I could comment on this new threat, she stopped in her tracks. "But for now - we've found the feeding center."

We had arrived in a little market square. Cafés lined the edges, their tables filled with people enjoying the afternoon sun. On one side – the one that lay in shadows for the most part of the day, I noticed – was a small private clinic. The entrance displayed the sign that Moroi used to mark their feeding centers – simple blood red squares appearing before and after the name of the hospital on the wide plaque over the double doors. It was unobtrusive enough so that few humans ever asked for the meaning, and if they did, they were simply told that it was part of the hospital's corporate design.

At this time of the day, there weren't many Moroi around, but as a clinic, of course it was open day and night. That was one of the main reasons feeding centers were usually combined with hospitals in the first place. That, and the hygienic facilities.

"We should go in and ask if they've already been there," Rose suggested.

"Well, for one, you're not going in there because every Moroi receptionist would instantly recognize you, and secondly, you wouldn't have much success because Lissa would have disguised them. The queen coming for a snack would probably attract a little attention, don't you think?"

"Spoil sport," Rose muttered. But then she almost instantly brightened up. "There they are! Up there! They seem alright!"

And indeed, Dimitri, Lissa, Christian and Ava were making their way over to us from the other side of the square, crossing the sunlit space in a tight-packed huddle. Dimitri must have been herding them around like sheep. They all looked disgruntled to various degrees, but they were safe. After all, Dimitri was an excellent guardian. And an excellent sheep dog.

"Thank god, Rose," Lissa said, letting a sigh of relief escape her as she flung her arms around Rose's neck. Rose tensed slightly in an attempt to brace herself for the telling-off she was clearly expecting – but none came. Everyone seemed to be glad she had made the effort to find them again at all. I was probably not the only one who had suspected that she was going to leg it. Ava hugged me quietly. Only Dimitri had a resentful glint in his eyes, but whether that was for Rose's running away or my following her, I couldn't say.

"Let's go in," Lissa urged. "Standing around out here in the open is probably not a good idea. Rose, Dimitri, you'll have to stay outside. I can't concentrate on disguising you, too."

They both bristled at the mere thought, but Lissa quickly cut them off. "It's a feeding center. It's bound to be heavily guarded. Nothing will happen. And Anton can come with us for protection."

I was thoroughly floored to see that the idea of me being protection actually seemed to reassure them. Without another word of complaint, they sat down on stone pillars bordering the square and watched our backs while we approached the clinic entrance, keeping an eye on us until we had reached the safety of the Moroi-protected walls.

"Interesting," I muttered.

Ava laughed softly. "Surprised you've earned a reputation?"

We stopped at the entrance for a few minutes so Lissa could focus on magically giving herself and Christian different faces. I couldn't see anything this time, but it undoubtedly worked for the small Moroi woman at the reception desk, who received us with all the polite distance usually reserved for entirely unremarkable and perfectly unfamiliar faces. She was definitely not seeing the queen and her consort standing right in front of her.

"Second floor on the right, labelled 'consultation room five'. Just knock. Have a good time!"

There was another receptionist in consultation room five, one just to make sure no stray human wandered in and saw vampires biting into the necks of hapless humans. In truth, the whole station was probably designed for the human feeders, with large parts of the hospital serving as their living quarters and recreational areas. But we were only interested in the feeding room itself.

I was familiar with the feeding room back in the academy, where I often went to accompany Ava. There, you would have to register with the person up front, and then wait in line until the next feeder was available. Here, there were no lines. We took seats in a small sitting room whose only other occupants were a young Moroi couple and their guardian. They exchanged a polite nod with us and were soon called up. At this time of the day, Moroi customers must be very rare, and waiting times depending largely on how fast they could get a feeder out of bed.

When it was our turn, a nurse – or someone looking like one - led us into a room full of little walled-off sections that was remarkably similar to the ones I knew from school. Only back there, there was always much more noise in the feeding room. Several students always fed at once, and there was always a hum of voices. Here, all was quiet. I could barely make out a low-voiced murmur that might have originated from the other Moroi visitors.

Lissa and Christian were led to one feeder, and Ava to another. Hers was drowsy from either sleep or frequent feedings, and she was as gentle as she could be while she sank her teeth into his neck. She fed in silence, letting the sleepy human drift into the bliss of a vampire-bite induced high.

We were on our way out through the curtain-walled aisles of the feeding room when we heard Lissa and Christian's hushed voices.

"This is nerve-racking enough as it is. And I'd really appreciate you not making it any worse." It was Lissa's voice. Their section was a little ahead of us.

"Lissa,"Christian's voice said. "We're after someone who wants to kill us. Are you really surprised that that freaks me out a little?"

"That's the thing, Christian: that's not why you're freaking out. You were perfectly okay with that when we left Court. You were completely normal up until that church. Then you started freaking out. That's when you stopped talking and started being all grumpy and closed-off. And I know when something is up with you, Christian."

We were now right in front of their booth. We should have kept walking, should have let them talk this out in private, but without needing to speak, we both stopped. They hadn't heard us coming.

"Lissa, please…"

"No, you listen." Lissa's voice had turned soft. "I've seen you looking at Ava. Talking to her. Not talking to her."

There was a pause, but no reply.

"We did contemplate the possibility," Lissa continued, her voice still quiet and gentle. "I have been aware of the chance of it being true ever since we found out about Anton. So, it's actually not that big a step to figure out what's bothering you now, Christian."

There was a break in which I could hear her footsteps and assumed she was going to him. Her next words confused me.

"What did we do wrong?"

The silence that followed left me all too much time to process this, but all it did was irritate me. What a way to react to finding out you'd met your grown-up daughter was that? I glanced to Ava and saw the devastated look on her face, and the silence became too much for me to bear.

"Of all the things you could possibly say upon learning about your daughter," I said, loud enough to be heard through the curtains. "You go for, 'What did we do wrong?'" I extended my arm, shoving the curtains away so that I could step through. "How about what went right? Because personally, I can see a lot more things that are right than wrong with Ava."

They were looking at me wide-eyed. I knew that this was not a moment when it would be considered overly tactful to barge in on them like I did. But it annoyed me even further to see just how calmly they took this. They looked as if I had interrupted nothing more than their tea party.

"Good timing, Anton," Christian said, quietly. He was still sitting on the chair next to their feeder, a youngish woman who was fast asleep.

"Sorry." It came out more frigidly than I had intended. "We couldn't help but overhear."

Christian just silently got up and pulled the curtain open, which had fallen shut behind me, to reveal Ava hovering there sheepishly.

"She didn't mean that there's anything wrong with you. She meant…"

"The aura," Ava finished. Her eyes flickered up to him briefly, and then down again.

"Oh, come on, people," I groaned. "Do you honestly think that everybody walks around displaying their feelings for everyone to see in their aura like I do? Just because my aura betrays all my feelings like a lie detector? I'm probably the most readable individual on this planet! Just because someone's aura doesn't show everything that's going on in their life, doesn't mean there is nothing. Ava's not making an exhibition of her feelings. So you don't see them. Don't be so stupid to think there aren't any."

I was breathing heavily after this rant. It was pretty much the only noise and movement in the room, which made it quite a little uncomfortable.

"We should go back outside," Ava finally said. "Before Rose and Dimitri get worried and start tearing the place apart looking for us."

She didn't wait for us to follow, but just walked on ahead. I caught up with her as she crossed the waiting room, and fell into step through the reception room and the hospital corridors. We thanked the receptionist on our way out, and blinked out into the bright sunlight as if a dream had just passed.

* * *

 **No cliffhanger this time, so don't complain! :) I'm working on a Lily POV, I might add it to the next chapter. Even though I don't like unpredictable jumps in narrator perspective, I think it's actually a fairly good addition, so thanks to you all for giving me the idea!  
**


	18. Silver Shards

Outside in the almost unreal sunlight, Rose and Dimitri were still perched on the pillars on the edge of the square, Dimitri on the phone looking less than happy with his interlocutor and Rose watching him eagerly as if trying to listen in on the conversation. Rose immediately noticed us exiting the feeding center, and her eyes were on us all the way to her – remote guarding, so to say.

I kept glancing over at Ava, but her face was set in stone.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk this out with them?" I issued a backwards glance – I was supposed to be guarding all three of them, and Ava was just running ahead. "Once we're within Rose and Dimitri's hearing distance, that chance has passed."

She didn't even slow down. "I can't talk this out right now," she said stiffly.

I sighed, but I had to let her go. The distance between us and Lissa and Christian was growing too wide, and Ava was close enough to Rose and Dimitri now that I let her go ahead and turned to her parents. Lissa and Christian were just exiting the hospital – Lissa looked dazed, and Christian was talking to her rapidly, albeit too low for me to understand. I assumed he was filling her in on how he found out about his daughter.

"Anton, I'm sorry," Lissa said when they caught up with me. "I didn't want her to get the wrong impression."

"You'll have to talk to her, not to me," I retorted.

Christian let out a sigh. "That's not going to be easy with Rose and Dimitri breathing down our necks," he said ruefully.

This was all we could say, because we'd reached the others now. Ava pretended to be busy watching something in the opposite direction of her parents. Dimitri acknowledged our presence with a nod, but his phone conversation kept his attention.

"I assure you, the queen is informed and has given her whole-hearted assent," he explained patiently. "So has Lord Ozera. They are safe, and that's how we intend to keep them... I am fully aware of that, but let me emphasize again that we did nothing that we cannot justify and that was not absolutely necessary."

"Hans," Rose mouthed in explanation. I knew he was the current head guardian – not a pleasant call any day, especially if you were currently on the run with the queen, whom you had previously aided in surreptitiously sneaking away from half an army of guardians specifically meant to protect her.

"That will not be long, I assume." Dimitri looked relieved to finally finish the call, and turned to us. "They'll clean up the mess with the car. But we'd better be careful about the trail we leave, because Hans wasn't happy about us trashing a guardian-issued car. Also, I would much appreciate if all of you could make an effort to stay alive. If someone doesn't, Rose and I will be in serious trouble with guardian headquarters."

"We will try our best not to die," I assured.

"So," Rose said. "Dimitri and I have been talking about what to do next. Seeing as our initial plan to go back to the national park now seems unlikely to do the trick."

"Nope. That kind of backfired," Christian somberly agreed.

Rose had noticed the mood in which our little trip to the feeding center had ended; she alternated in giving each of us a sharp look, quickly singling out Ava and Lissa as the source of the disturbance. There was no fooling Rose, especially when she had already been suspicious. Although I had to hand it to Lissa and Christian: they were very tough in not showing how disconcerted they were. As I said: role model secret agents. Lissa was concealing her concerned and curious glances to Ava very well. Ava's withdrawal was probably the most telling thing; but I could tell she was avoiding Lissa mostly because not showing emotions would be so much harder if she looked her mother in the face.

This group situation was going to blow up in our faces eventually. When no one could ever talk privately, we would end up exploding from the need to get things off our chests.

"We need to stay in public places," I told the others what Rose and I had discussed. "Robert seems reluctant to jeopardize others. He doesn't want casualties. So as long as we stay in a crowd, he won't attack us."

"He doesn't want casualties?" Ava repeated skeptically. I knew what she meant: her dad had been a casualty. Robert must be going to change his mind about that at some point.

"For now, at least," Rose said. "Listen… I appreciate your help. I really do." She was drawing in breath to say more, but Christian cut her off.

"Save it, Rose. We're in this together, and that decision is already made. We know we could get hurt if we happen to stand between Robert and you. We accept it and that's that. We're not going to leave, so don't waste your breath. Let's rather think about what we're going to do next."

He of all people had the right to say this. Studying the worn and exhausted faces of my companions, I could see the same message in every one of them. Dimitri wasn't ever going to leave Rose, no questions asked. Lissa wasn't much used to putting herself in the line of danger, but that wouldn't prevent her from doing what she could to save her friend, and she knew how much her magic could do. Christian knew what was at stake, and he was hell-bend on saving what he could. And of course, they were now aware that they had a daughter whom they certainly wouldn't leave alone in this. Lissa's eyes were still straying towards Ava. And of course, Ava and I wouldn't leave. Period.

"There must be hotels close by, in the city center," Dimitri said. "They should be safe enough. We all need some rest."

With our switch of schedules, we had all gotten next to no sleep in what qualified as last night, and the night before hadn't exactly been restful either. The Moroi's need for blood had been stilled, but it didn't help with their exhaustion. We did need to rest.

The most central hotel was just around the corner and resembled the palace in its grand and obviously expensive interior. The receptionist was a little surprised to see us marching up to her counter – after all the fighting, running and hiking, we were a somewhat bedraggled lot, downcast and with only what little luggage we had saved from the wreckage of the car slung over our shoulders. I realized with a pang that if Ava hadn't had the presence of mind to retrieve our backpack with the silver chain, things would look even more dismal now.

The rooms were as splendid as the lobby and so was the bathroom. We didn't dare split up into more than one room, as usual, and took turns taking showers, and I had to resist the urge to let the hot water run over my body a little longer than strictly necessary. Dimitri was still waiting for his turn, and he had waited long enough.

When we were all cleaned up and Dimitri's and Rose's habitual decision on who'd take first watch fell on him, I had to suppress a little sigh at the thought that if it wasn't for Robert, we would actually all be able to get a good night's sleep in this place. Although the sun had set outside, the Strigoi risk was pretty much nonexistent.

I joined Dimitri at the window, where he examined the dark streets below. He had been very specific in demanding a room which didn't face any other building. The one we had received was facing the square, so there was no way anybody could watch us through the window. Without seeing us, Lissa had been positive that Robert had no way of targeting us.

"We need to figure out how he located us," I said, more to myself than to my dad.

Dimitri nodded thoughtfully. Then he turned his measured gaze on me. "Could it be that he can sense you somehow?" he suggested in his calm voice. "Because of your ability?"

I blinked. It hadn't even crossed my mind that I might be responsible for Robert's uncannily accurate knowledge of our whereabouts. But I had to admit that it could be true. If it was, then I had done the exact opposite of helping when I had followed Rose. If it was true, if I was what was drawing his attention on her in the first place…

"That would be a good thing," Dimitri said.

I stared at him. How could my attracting her murderer to Rose be a good thing?

"It would mean that we can stop it," Dimitri clarified when he noticed my horrified stare. "And I don't mean separating you from Rose. Lissa can stop it. She was able to block him from accessing Rose's dreams. So she should be able to block him from sensing you, as well."

For a moment, I just continued to stare at him. Then I whipped around with Lissa's name on my lips.

She was already half asleep, but she shed her sleepiness while I explained. "I can't sense you," she mused with a frown. "But maybe he can. A simple shielding charm... I need silver!"

This induced a flurry of action as everyone scoured the room for something made of silver, but even a hotel of this rank wasn't stupid enough to have things of value lying around in their rooms. In the end, Dimitri went downstairs and scandalized the poor receptionist by asking if he could possibly buy a piece of silver cutlery.

I ended up with a silver spoon around my wrist that Dimitri had bent with his bare hands. I wasn't feeling any differently –a little more ridiculed for my choice of jewelry perhaps and in even greater awe of Dimitri after this new display of overwhelming manliness – but Lissa assured me that not feeling anything wasn't a sign of it not working.

"Now I hope that it was me," I whispered to Ava, snuggled into my blankets on our usual spots on the ground. I was so looking forwards to sleeping on a mattress again. "If this works, it means that we're safe from him."

"And that we might have a way to draw him to us when we want it, and not when he wants it," she replied.

"Do you think he's been… _feeding_ from me? Now that he's lost Declan as a stabilizer…"

She made a face. "I think he probably has. But if the bracelet works, that stops now, too."

"Bracelet. Nicely put." The spoon-bangle was making sleeping with my arm under my head very uncomfortable.

"I want to talk to them," Ava suddenly sighed, longing in her voice. "There's so much I need to say and so much I need to hear and I can't. This… just pretending that nothing has happened because Rose and Dimitri are always there… that's killing me!"

"We'll get you a few minutes tomorrow. I'll make sure of that."

"She thinks I'm a disappointment."

"Oh no, she doesn't. Don't you see the way she looks at you?"

"Yes, I do. Like she's rethinking parenthood."

"Like she's trying to cope with having a superhero for a daughter."

"And Christian – why isn't he cracking up right now?"

"Because he has faith in us and believes that we're going to change it. And he's right."

Ava snuggled closer and hid her head in my chest. She probably lay awake for a while – I didn't know, because I fell asleep the instant I closed my eyes.

And woke up what felt like ten minutes later.

Rose was thrashing wildly. For a moment, I thought that she was simply having a nightmare, like Lissa had had the other night. Dimitri was hovering over her; they hadn't changed shifts guarding yet. I had no idea how they made do with so little sleep.

Then I realized that Dimitri wasn't trying to wake Rose up. He was trying to steal her pillow.

Well, that didn't make much sense. Then I realized that the pillow wasn't where it was supposed to be – under her head – but where it most definitely had no business being – on her face. Her own hands ripped at the soft bulk, and her body writhed and trashed under it.

The pillow was trying to suffocate her.

I was on my feet a tenth of a second after Ava was. Lissa and Christian were waking up in the other bed, but the scene was eerily quiet because Rose was unable to scream, as she surely would have liked to do right now.

"Find Robert!" Dimitri pressed out between clenched teeth. His struggle with the pillow didn't seem to be going well. The thing didn't budge.

How long did it take a person to suffocate? Surely not more than a few minutes. I had to find Robert. I had to dispatch him so his magic would end.

Think, Anton. He needed eye contact. If he couldn't get it through the window, and if there were no cameras installed in the room – and there weren't, Rose and Dimitri had checked – then there was only one more option. The good old keyhole.

I jumped over Ava's and my blankets and ripped the door open. Nothing. He must have legged it as soon as he had located Rose's precise location. In front of me, the long open hallway screamed at me to decide on one of two ways to go.

Ava was right behind me. "You right, we left. You take the chain."

By 'we' she meant herself and Christian, while Lissa had joined the pillow fight. She pressed the chain into my hand – her presence of mind really was infinite – and without waiting for my response, she took off down the left side of the hallway. I wasted no time. I raced down the opposite way.

The thickly carpeted floor swallowed my footsteps. I wouldn't be able to hear Robert even if he was just around the corner. The hotel had a mazelike build; I kept turning around corners, running in a zigzag pattern. The corridors were empty but for the picture frames displaying modern art, my only landmarks in halls that all looked stunningly alike.

A sharp turn almost sent me toppling down the staircase. Up or down? Robert would have tried to get out of the confines of the building. Outside, he would blend into the masses. I went down.

I'd only made it one story down when I head the sudden crackle of flames from above, followed by an angry squeal. I stopped in my tracks. Flames illuminated a landing a few floors up from where I was. I retraced my steps, charging upwards again.

It was higher up than our room was situated. Of course – the roofs. If Robert had discovered a new, ninja way of flying from rooftop to rooftop like a first rate movie vampire, up was the way he would go. Ava must have seen this instantly.

I found her and Christian facing a small inferno in a hallway leading off the fifth floor landing. A figure twisted within a raging circle of fire. It looked like Christian was trying to keep Robert trapped in flames, but he wouldn't be easily contained; the fire kept being smothered by an invisible force. My mind went to Rose – surely this had to be enough to save her – surely the effort of fending off the assault of flames would be enough to take Robert's attention away from Rose and his fiendish pillow attack.

Ava's frown of concentration told me that she was trying to reach out to water in her mind. In contrast to fire users, Ava could not create the element she used out of thin air – she needed water, or she could not work.

I skidded to a halt beside them just as Robert opened a path for himself in the wall of flames, tried to escape it, just to be captured in a new circle all over again. He wasn't defending himself, I realized. There were canvasses in glass frames all along the walls, every one of which could turn into a deathly torrent of sharp-edged razor shards the moment Robert wished it so.

"The chain," Ava hissed to me. It was ready in my hands. Ava touched Christian's arm; she whispered something in his ear that I couldn't hear, but in the next second, she called out "Now!"

The fire ceased to exist. Nothing was between me and my enemy. I lurched forward, chain ready, arms extended, before the new situation had even registered with Robert. There he was, just an elderly man, looking frail and slightly malnourished. He turned to run the moment I was on him. The chain. I ran straight into him, not bothering to be careful. Once circled around his body, the chain would prevent any magic of his to exit the silver boundaries. The chain was strong. Lily had worked a piece of spirit art by it.

When Robert was lying on the floor, chain wound around him, me sitting behind him and gripping the ends of the charmed object like my life depended on it, I didn't immediately realize what I had done.

I had done it. _It_. I had captured Robert. Robert was captured.

My mom and Ava's dad were safe.

"Clever children you are." His voice was calm. Way to calm for a man about to face years in an insane asylum. "A strong spirit user wove this charm. Who did it for you?"

None of us answered. In fact, Ava and Christian were just standing there, staring at us. I was just sitting there, staring at him.

"We… we won't do anything to you," Ava said, her voice suddenly uncharacteristically small. "We're going to get you help. Just help. We don't mean to harm you."

Robert raised his head from the floor to look at her. "I mean you no harm either. I only want the one who murdered my brother. I have the right to take revenge on her."

"No," Christian said. "You don't. No one gets to kill someone simply because they took a dislike to them. Rose didn't murder your brother. It was an accident."

Now Robert's gaze wandered to him. I wondered what it was like, looking into the eyes of the man you knew was going to kill you in something that would hopefully prove to be a different timeline.

"She killed him." His voice was like ice. "And then they took me away from him. I could have healed him. I could have brought him back. But they didn't let me. They killed him twice."

He struggled to sit up, but I wouldn't let him. I wouldn't allow him to raise his little finger if he didn't strictly need to do so. He wouldn't do anything. I would make sure of that.

"So you see," Robert continued from the floor. "I will take my revenge. I will take the life of the one who took the only family I had, the only person love would let me keep. I do not want to kill you. But if you keep getting in the way of me and my revenge, I will not make concessions for you. Next time you stand between me and the murderer, I will take no mercy on you. Remember this. You've had a warning."

And the chain burst to a million tiny pieces in my hands. Shards exploded, rained over me, embedded themselves in my skin, in my face, in my eyes. I couldn't see. I couldn't breathe. But pain – I felt pain. So much pain. There was a scream, and I knew it was mine. I wanted to claw at my face, scratch my burning eyes out, but someone held my wrists, burned their hands into my skin, and someone called my name. I wanted to tell them to stop it. Make it all stop. I couldn't take this. My body was on fire, needles searing through my arms, through my chest, piercing my lungs, making my heart bleed. My eyes were burning, blazing in my head, erasing any voice of human thought. There was pain and screams, and it had to stop… Please, it had to stop. Make it stop, make it all stop, make it stop… please make it stop…

.

.

.

* * *

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **Lily -  
**

 **The year 2036**

There was a light drizzle outside, and I pulled my cardigan tighter around me as I stepped out from under the protective shelter of the palace's grand front steps. It was still light out, and sunset painted the sky that dark, luminous blue that existed only at this hour. It was partly this light that made me an early riser. Although, this time of the year, I didn't need to rise early in order to see it. Nights were short, and we spend more of the day in the bothersome sunlight than we had to in winter.

The grass was soaked, so I didn't cross over the lawn to get to guardian headquarters as I usually did. I was wearing heels, something I had recently taken a liking to, and they would have sunk into the earth even if it hadn't been wet. Maybe I should have brought an umbrella, I thought as I passed the large fountain whose surface of water was alive with the tiny drops. The way to guardian headquarters wasn't long, but all the same, my hair was sprinkled with the soft fizzle that spray rain always left on my head, not exactly wet yet, but a mess by the time I'd be out again.

The three steps leading up to the guardian headquarter front door were deceptively calm. As soon as I opened the door, I entered into the flurry of activity that was a permanent condition in this building. There existed no time when guardian vigilance was at rest. No time when there were no eyes watching over Court and the surrounding Moroi and dhampir communities. There was an orderly hustle at all times, guardians coming from somewhere and going somewhere, although I had no idea what kept them so busy, seeing as the only real guardian activity in Court was palace watch and the occasional patrol. Maybe the administrative part of the guardian business was much larger then we Moroi ever got to know, an idea favored by the fact that the majority of guardians didn't leave or exit through the front door.

I neared the reception desk that was unceremoniously squeezed into a corner of the small but high-ceilinged lobby. The only purpose for this desk was to help out visiting guardians; those who didn't live at Court but came over on business with their Moroi and dropped by the institute that managed all their work-related affairs. I wasn't familiar with all the receptionists – I think the guardians took turns offloading this job – but the person sitting there right now was very familiar to me.

"Lily," Dimitri said, looking up. He'd been reading something hidden behind the desk, but his guardian hearing could probably distinguish between the purposeful steps of the guardians working here and the hesitating steps of people feeling out of place – like me.

"It's nice to see you," he said, giving me a smile. He'd always been very forthcoming with smiles for Ava and me, something people said we should consider ourselves lucky for because Dimitri's smiles were as rare as diamonds.

"You'd see me more often if you came over more frequently," I replied.

He chose not to react to this, just as he never reacted to anyone telling him off for his reclusive lifestyle. "Are you looking for someone?"

"I was looking for you," I told him truthfully. "In contrast to what you might think, we know you take it hard when Anton leaves, and it's the first time I'm not leaving with him."

It was true that I wasn't leaving for the academy with Anton and Ava this fall. The glitch was that neither had Anton and Ava left for the academy yet.

"Well, your company is always welcome, whether Anton is here or not."

I leaned against the waist-high side of his receptionists' counter.

"If you're hoping to meet Cameron, I'll have to disappoint you," Dimitri said. "He's not here."

"It's not Cam," I told him in a dignified tone. I hoped he wouldn't tell him that I'd been here. Cameron and I had dated briefly over the summer, but it hadn't ended well.

"How are the college preparations coming along?" Dimitri asked, probably more comfortable with a change of subject.

"There's not so much I need to prepare," I admitted. "I think the guardians have more work because of it than I do." Again, probably true. As the queen's daughter, I would be heavily protected during my college years.

"It's so much easier at the academies," I added, because I had to bring the conversation back to the topic eventually. That was why I was here.

"It is," Dimitri agreed. "But usually, Moroi going to college with a large Moroi student body are safe enough. You'll be safe from Strigoi."

I decided to just go ahead and breach the subject. I didn't want to dawdle, much as I liked Anton's dad.

"Anton said this year's guardian training is much more advanced," I said, taking care to maintain eye-contact with Dimitri.

"Of course it is," Dimitri said. "He's progressing."

"The first three weeks have been good," I told him, lacing my voice and my eyes with a small waft of spirit.

"Yes," Dimitri replied. "It's been three weeks already."

"It has," I said.

"I miss him. It's always hardest after the summer holidays." The touch of sadness in Dimitri's voice was so sincere that I almost dropped my hold on spirit. I hated lying to him. I hated compelling him even more. But it couldn't be helped. He'd freak out if he became aware that school had not actually started three weeks ago. And wouldn't start for a few more days.

"He's happy in school," I said, increasing the spirit a notch. I tried to be thrifty, but I could already feel the strain of my extensive spirit use. It was so much harder without Anton around. I think I had never really appreciated what an advantage it was, having him. I had never known the boundaries of my powers, because he'd always been there to boost my strength. Now, I had to fend for myself, and it wasn't going so well.

We hadn't planned on this going on for so long. Ava and Anton had been gone for three weeks now. Either they were needing much longer to do what they were doing and the duration of their stay translated into the duration of their actual absence as opposed to them just being gone for a second but weeks passing for them – or… they had wiped themselves out in the past.

I didn't dwell on that possibility. I really had no idea about the workings of time travel –I was, in all likelihood, the only practitioner in the field – and I had no idea what would happen if Ava and Anton messed up the past. I don't think the fact that they had been missing for three weeks was a good sign. They should have taken less than a week to carry out our plan.

Well, by now I considered it safe to assume that things had not gone according to our plan. God knows what they were doing now. Or, you know – their now.

"There are awfully many children in Court," Dimitri remarked, gazing outside through the headquarter's somewhat dirty front windows.

I sighed. It was getting increasingly harder to make Mom and Dimitri believe that there was nothing suspicious about their children's continued absence. Every time I renewed the compulsion that made them believe that Ava and Anton were already at the academy, I had to use a little more magic. And I had to renew it more and more often.

"Their schools start later," I said, intensifying the dose of spirit again. It was already making me a little dizzy, and I was glad for the support of the reception desk. Although I was using minimal amounts of spirit for my compulsion, the repeated use of it was starting to take its toll. Dimitri was fairly easy to compel. My mom was an entirely different case. She was a spirit user herself, and I had to lay it on thick so she wouldn't notice.

I had wanted make this a prolonged visit, but I felt like I should stay leaning against the counter for a little while longer.

"Lily?"

Oh crap. My luck today.

Standing in a doorway leading to one of the many secret chambers within the headquarters' bowels was my mom, in all her regal splendor. At almost forty, my mom was still a beautiful woman. It was as if her body refused to show on the outside what I was sure she was like on the inside: black and empty. Okay, now this is me being overly dismal, I admit it. But the point is, Ava and I had plotted to change the past so that we could make our mom happier. Because she was many things, loving and just among them, but the thing she was most certainly not was happy.

It was almost as bad for Dimitri. But only almost. And that little thought that had always been nagging at me, had always made me a little more jealous of Anton than I already was, was this: Anton was more of a light in the life of his dad than Ava and I were in Mom's life. Dimitri had had a hard time, but he'd never given up on love and happiness, and the reason for that was his son. Mom had given up on pretty much everything except her children, but you see, that makes for depressing parenting.

I was still trying to tell myself that Dimitri was simply a stronger person than Mom. That it had nothing to do with me.

"Hi Mom," I chimed. She would probably think I was dating a guardian, too. "What are you doing here?" She didn't often go to guardian headquarters. She didn't often go anywhere, actually. Usually people came to see her.

"There were some archive papers I needed to look into. They didn't want to send them up, so I had to sift through them. Hello, Dimitri."

"Vasilisa," Anton's dad replied.

There were guardians behind her, the usual detail of the Queen's Guard. Anton's mom had once belonged to it, until she had died along with Ava's and my dad.

"Are you going back to the palace?" I asked conversationally.

"I am. Are you coming with me?"

I shrugged, trying to communicate that whatever I was doing here wasn't important at all, and joined her. She mustered me sharply.

"You look tired. Is something wrong?"

"Mom, sometimes there are more interesting things to do at night than sleep."

I could tell she didn't buy my I'm-a-teenager-You-don't-want-to-know affectations anymore. I had outgrown that phase. It was a shame – people had the tendency to stop digging for the cause of your crazy behavior once you had successfully convinced them that hormones were involved.

"Have you heard anything from Ava?" Mom asked me now. "She still hasn't called."

Crap, again. If this dragged on for much longer, I would have to revert to faking phone calls, too.

"Mom, Ava's fifteen. She's not going to call you every day anymore. Come to think of it, I guess she never did."

Mom hummed. "You're right. And she has Anton. She'll be fine."

Yes, Ava had Anton. The way Mom said it sent a jab of – I admit it – jealousy through me. Ava and Anton had always been considered as some kind of unity. They were of the same age, and they'd been inseparable ever since kindergarten. I think that Ava hadn't been truly alone or lonely for a single day in her life. Mom's indifference was bothering her, but if Mom wasn't in the mood for socializing, she always had Anton. I didn't have a friend like that. I loved my mom and I knew she loved me more than anything, but if she had one of her withdrawing days, I was left with no company but my room and books and perhaps a phone call to someone from the academy. What with me being there for most of the year, I didn't have many friends at Court. I had ended up making new friends every time I stayed for the holidays. I had to, or I would have wasted away from lack of social contact. They consisted mainly of the type of friends you went to wild parties with, got wasted or worse. Some people might not even call those people friends. I definitely had no relationship with any of my friends that came close to what Ava had with Anton.

I knew that Ava had always been jealous of me for my closer relationship to Mom, but truth was, I wasn't sure I wouldn't have preferred what she had. Anton was reliable. He was there for her when she needed him. Whenever she needed him.

"I hope she does call soon, though. She forgot half her wardrobe, and she'll probably be turning the academy upside down looking for her things."

"I'm sure it's stuff she doesn't wear anymore," I played it down. I had alibi-packed a few things of hers after I had had to send her away in such a rush, but I hadn't known all the places Ava stashed her possessions.

"Oh, and Christian will be back earlier than expected," Mom said. "He'll be here tomorrow."

I didn't understand what she was saying at first. I looked at her, and was suddenly startled by an odd change in her appearance. At first, I couldn't put a finger on what it was.

"Who?" I asked confusedly.

Her face, I realized. And with that realization, my stomach lurched. This person had laugh lines at her mouth and eyes. She was smiling slightly, and she was looking at me with joy and mild admonishment.

"Lily," she said gently. "Your father is coming home from his trip."

* * *

 **HAHA! This is practically a double cliffhanger! And you know what I just realized? Adding Lily-chapters gives me the power to do even more insufferable cliffhangers!** **I could draw them out over a whole Lily-chapter. I could shorten a chapter and fill it with Lily, just to make you wait for the Anton chapter to continue. Ha! My powers of the torture by cliffhanger are now unlimited! *grins evilly and rubs her hands like a maniac***


	19. To Tell Or Not To Tell

**Oh yes - I have made you all very confused. I am going to do absolutely nothing to clear up that confusion :-D**

 **(Okay, I will, but not in this chapter. And only so I can confuse you all over again, but differently).**

 **I have to thank a guest reviewer who was wondering about Rose and Dimitri's and Lissa's ages when they had their children. I made a mistake there – I wanted to say 'almost forty', not almost fifty. It's corrected now, so I hope that wasn't something that confused you even more... Again, many thanks to that reviewer!**

 **Enjoy the read** **:-)**

* * *

I woke up to soft voices. Everything was soft. The bed I was lying on was soft. The light was soft. The hand holding mine was soft.

It was Ava's hand, of course. She was sitting next to me, twisting to talk to someone behind her. Softly. When she turned back around and noticed my open eyes, her smile was soft, too.

"Hey Anton. Nice to have you back."

I could see her, so that must mean my eyes hadn't burned away after all.

"Are you feeling okay? You were…" Ava's voice trailed off, and I wasn't sure I wanted to know anyway.

I was feeling a little woozy, actually. I made myself sit to make the sleepiness go away, reaching up and rubbing my face. It was all smooth and clean. So were my hands, my arms, all of my body.

"I'm okay. In one piece. I … what happened?"

"Lissa healed you," Ava said, which didn't really answer my question. "She's downstairs right now with Dimitri, making sure the receptionist won't know which room number she gave us if someone should ask."

I took in my surroundings. It was a different room. The light came from a reading lamp next to the bed. It was still dark outside.

"Robert…"

"He got away." Ava kept her calm at this. "But Rose is safe."

"The chain? What happened with it? How did Robert attack in spite of it?"

"Well, the chain is gone now." She looked at me for a moment. "We kind of picked the pieces out of your skin."

"He made the chain explode?"

She nodded. "It worked all right, he wasn't able to work any magic outside of the boundaries. We just didn't think that he'd still be able to wield enough spirit within them to shatter it."

I closed my eyes for a moment. My mind didn't want to realize the impact of what this meant. Robert gone again and the chain as well. No trail. No secret weapon.

I was relieved from pondering too much on those dismal thoughts by Lissa's and Dimitri's entrance. Rose and Christian, I realized, were in the back of the room, giving Ava and me a little space.

"We should be safe here for the rest of the night," Dimitri announced.

Then he saw me and came over to the bed, followed by the rest of them.

"You look like a survivor of the zombie apocalypse," Rose declared gloomily. I honestly was feeling perfectly alright at this point and must have shown my surprise on my face, because Ava clarified things by discreetly nodding towards my torso. Looking down, I realized that survivor of the zombie apocalypse was putting it mildly. My clothes were ripped and torn in about million places, strewn with needle-thin holes, and, above all, drenched in dirty-brown blotches of dried blood. Lissa must have repaired quite some damage to my skin. I started to wonder whether the charmed chain was the only thing that had exploded in that corridor, but I probably really didn't want to know. I shuddered as I remembered the reddish darkness that had darkened my vision. If not for the miracle of spirit's healing powers, I would probably be permanently blind now, let alone bleeding out from a million tiny wounds all over my body.

"Thanks, Lissa." It sounded fairly drab compared to what she had done for me.

"You're welcome," she replied with a smile. "We were just glad that it was mostly superficial injuries."

She looked tired. I could imagine that with the healing, the compulsion of the receptionist and the memory wipes of all the other guests who must have woken up at my screaming and left their rooms to discover a boy covered in shards and blood on their doorstep, she had had quite a strenuous night.

They let me keep the bed, and I couldn't muster the energy to decline, so spent a night in feathery heaven. Waking up in the morning – very peacefully from the bright sunlight that was trickling through the curtains, and not from screaming or scuffling for a change – and missing Ava's tousled head by my side, I looked up to find her huddled in a corner with Lissa and Christian. They were talking quietly, barely audible for me, or for Rose or Dimitri, who were standing close to the door in a tight embrace.

It was a picture of serenity and I didn't have it in my heart to break it all apart. The softness of the mattress was inviting, and I stayed, not moving, not showing them that I was awake. My parents were talking, whispering into each other's ear. They held each other all the while, as if only in their embrace, their respective bodies were complete. Even though Dimitri was almost a foot taller than Rose was, there seemed to be perfect balance. I watched her give him a cheeky smile, saying something that made him smile in return. Then they kissed.

I had heard classmates complaining about displays of affection from their parents. Parents kissing in public, or in front of them – they found it disgusting. I, in contrast, wished I could witness this more often. I found it beautiful. Sensual and faintly erotic even though they were my parents, yes, but tranquil and radiating love. I made a mental note to watch my parents kiss whenever I legitimately could.

They did notice that I was awake all too soon, though. I sat up, and they came over to me.

"You can sleep all you want, Anton. Rest as much as you need." Rose said softly. Then, wondrously, she sat down by my side and put an arm around me.

"You gave us such a scare last night. Robert really did some damage on you."

"Yeah, the chain broke," I muttered dejectedly.

"And turned you into a pincushion. Don't let him do that again, please. If Lissa hadn't been there…" Rose shuddered slightly and pulled me to her. It was unspeakably nice to lean into her, breathing in the flowery scent of her lush brown hair. I didn't even tell her that there wouldn't be an again, because this had been the only weapon we'd had. I allowed myself the luxury. For just a few seconds, I told myself. Just these few seconds, I would let my mom comfort me.

"I think I'm the only one who didn't save anybody's life last night," Rose mused, only half-joking.

"But you do it on a daily basis," Dimitri argued. "Consider it your break."

"Anton's starting to make it a habit as well, don't you?" Ava said. She and her parents had finished their family reunion. When she jumped on the bed to nestle beside me, I sincerely hoped that they had had the time to talk it all out. I must be difficult for Lissa and Christian, in between car accidents and heinous pillow murder attempts, to find the time to come to terms with the fact that the person running around fighting criminals with them was their daughter.

I wasn't sure, but I thought I heard Christian mutter "Hardly a surprise, that," under his breath.

"I would really like matters to take a turn for the less lethal again, though," Lissa said. "We went on this hunt so that no one would get hurt. We should stick to that premise."

"You're right," Rose sighed.

"And we've lost our wonder weapon," Christian added. "The chain is dust now." He looked to Lissa hopefully. "If we get you a new chain, can you replicate the spell? Can you make us a new one?"

Lissa looked crestfallen. "Not right away. Whoever you're spirit contact is, he or she is very capable. And they must have worked for a long time on these charms, maybe years. I cannot replicate this charm in a day. And it didn't do the trick, anyway."

She tried to hide her disappointment in this, but I could see that she was reeling to find a solution that wouldn't postpone dealing with the threat into infinity. She wasn't one to procrastinate things like these.

"At least, Anton," Christian said, "We are fairly sure that Lissa's charm on you works. Robert can't locate you anymore."

"We think it works," Dimitri agreed. "That was quite a risky venture for Robert last night. He must have been directly outside our door, and Ava, Christian and Anton did almost catch him. And we assumed before that he wouldn't dare attack in a public place like this. He did, and I don't think that he would have chosen either this place or this manner of attacking us, if he had the choice. It looks a lot like a last-ditch effort to me. He must have realized that he had no way of locating us again with Anton's signal gone, and he made use of the last location he knew us in."

"If that is true, then we have an advantage now," I realized.

"And that would be?" Rose asked.

"We have a way to draw him to us. If I take off the… spoon, then he can locate me again."

"That might be so," Dimitri said, and I could hear in his voice that that prospect didn't really please him any. "But for now, we should be glad that we shook him off. Let's not draw him to us before we have a plan as to how we can subdue him if he's here."

"And in the meantime," Lissa added, "We should probably get going. He could come back here."

Rose looked like she was going to say something, but thought better of it. For a moment, we all sat quietly, and I looked around studying each of my and Ava's families' dejected faces. They didn't even really know what depended on us getting Robert, for the most part. They were concerned for Rose's safety, but the idea that she might actually die from Robert's hands was still no more than a distant worst-case scenario for her, Lissa and Dimitri.

In a disheartened silence, we packed up our things and made our way out through the same corridors that we almost captured our adversary in. It was dismal exit, tasting like defeat.

"We'll have to get a new car," Dimitri said when we once again stood on the town square. Suddenly being surrounded by all these clueless humans had a surreal feeling for me.

"Oh, are you going to hot-wire one again?" There was a clear tone of hopeful expectation in Rose's voice, breaking the brooding she' fallen into since we'd prepared to leave the hotel. "He can do that," she turned to us, virtually gleaming with pride at her criminally skilled boyfriend. "He's done it lots of times."

My dad could hot-wire a car? I had to be honest – this did instill me with a whole new sense of respect for him. Also, it was interesting how my parents' current interpretation of the law differed wildly from the way my dad had taught me to interpret the law. I do recall a few things my dad had had to say about stealing, and they had most definitely included 'wrong' and 'jail' and 'don't do it'.

"Can you show me?" I tried to keep some excess eagerness out of my voice, but I had to use the opportunities that I got. Future Dad would never admit to his thievery skills.

Dimitri gave me a stern look. "It's illegal, Anton."

"I know. That's why they don't teach us at the academy."

"Well, I hate to disappoint you," Lissa interjected. She was hiding a smile. "But, you know, we can simply rent a car. Perfectly legally."

Christian snorted. "But that takes all the fun out of it! Look at them – they so want to play Bonnie and Clyde. And… apprentice."

I could practically read in his face that he was thinking of a hundred different jokes to the effect of the family resemblance in our mutual criminal tendencies. How lucky he couldn't make any of them in my unsuspecting parents' presence.

Come to think of it, how unsuspecting were they really? Rose did have this glint in her eyes that spoke of nothing good…

While Dimitri went in search of a car rental facility, Rose and I took over guarding the Moroi. We figured that within the city limits, we were safest right where we were, on the square where there were the most people. The downside of it was that it made guarding really difficult. Humans were close by, and it was almost impossible to shield the Moroi without attracting attention by keeping random passers-by at a distance.

For Rose, of course, it was a piece of cake. She even had time for small-talk.

"What did you guys talk about earlier?" she asked nonchalantly. It was the casual glance that she gave Lissa, Ava and Christian at these words that alerted me that this wasn't going to be merely small-talk.

"About what happened," Lissa replied without batting an eyelid. Well, that probably wasn't even a lie, only that it was a different 'what happened' than what the words suggested.

"Oh, really? And why was it so important then that Dimitri and I don't hear anything of it?"

"Don't be silly, Rose," Lissa answered. "Why would we hide anything from you?"

"You tell me." Her tone was still light. "I'm not the one doing the hiding."

Lissa wasn't suddenly and blithely forthcoming with all-encompassing explanations, and Rose's approach promptly took a turn for the hard and threatening. "Look, I'm a guardian. I pick things up. And I'm pretty distinctly picking up that you have a secret from Dimitri and me. And I want to know it."

"That would defy the purpose of a secret," Christian quipped, trying to make light of it.

In contrast to the instant response of her parents, Ava had tensed up a bit. She and I had yet to learn a thing or two about the art of utter and unobtrusive deception.

"Don't fool with me, Christian," Rose said, clearly not fooled at all. "Secrets in a situation such as this are exactly what gets people killed. Dimitri and I are here to guard you. If you keep things from us that we need to know, then you're putting all of us in danger. We cannot protect you if we're not aware of half the things happening."

"But you are aware of everything, Rose," Lissa said calmly. "Believe me, if we knew something that mattered to our safety, we would tell you. We're not stupid either, you know?"

Strictly speaking, Lissa was right in that Ava's and my identity wasn't what was endangering us. But Rose didn't believe that there was no secret, I could tell. Well, blast my mom and her greater-than-average guardian prowess. Did that woman really see everything? How would I grow up when this larger-than-life person was actually there to see every blunder I would ever make in my life?

We stayed tense until Dimitri pulled up in a silver seven-seater Volvo that would put us in financial ruin if Robert should decide to go tornado on us again.

"You do recall that our last car got totaled?" Rose commented as she got into the passenger seat.

"It was the only one big enough. Wasn't a large facility," Dimitri replied.

"Anyway," Rose said. "We're off to Court."

Dimitri gave her a sideward glance. "We are?"

"Until we know what these four are keeping from us, we are," Rose affirmed in a final tone.

Suddenly, being crammed into this car took on the distinct sense of being abducted.

"Rose, if we go back to Court now it won't be easy to get out again," Lissa said carefully.

"We're taking enough risks already without you keeping things from us." Rose twisted around in her seat so she could more conveniently glare at the contrite lot of us. "I'm not going to accept having you exposed like this without knowing what we're up against. If you want to stay on the road, just come out and tell us. Until you do, we're doing our job and keeping you safe."

"You know what we're up against," Lissa argued, and Christian joined her: "Rose, there's nothing we're keeping from you that would endanger this mission. You're completely overreacting!"

Ava and I stayed silent, and it wasn't hard to guess that she was feeling as conflicted about this as I was. Returning to Court now would make our mission that much harder. We would have to sneak back out of Court, or maybe we would slip away somewhere on the road. It would just be the two or us again, so I couldn't help feeling relieved at the thought that we wouldn't be putting our parents in danger anymore.

But in order to think along these positive lines, I had to arduously refrain from admitting to myself that without the help of Christian and Lissa's magic and Rose and Dimitri's getaway skills, Ava and I would be screwed six ways from Sunday.

"You're awfully quiet, Anton and Ava," Dimitri accurately observed. His eyes in the rearview mirror were piercing.

We stayed awfully quiet, because there really was nothing that would alleviate my parents' suspicion.

It was a small comfort that we still had the long drive back to Court to slow things down. With our late start and the time needed to procure a car, we didn't get far today. Dimitri and Rose picked a larger town for us to take a motel in, so as to have the protection of a crowd again in case Robert detected us after all.

We were in an outrageously urgent need of a talk. In fact, Lissa, Christian, Ava and me were about to explode from the need to get things off our chests. But obviously, with Rose and Dimitri watching our every move and already suspicious, this was now harder than ever. I saw Lissa and Christian put their heads together while pretending to look for something in their bag. Ava and I exchanged nods and glances, and the occasional word in passing. Christian managed to sneak a minute with Ava while Lissa and I were loudly arguing a totally random Court policy. I felt like a spy, unobtrusively trying to pass on messages in a semi-coded language. Finally, Lissa cornered me in the tiny bathroom while Ava engaged Dimitri in a lengthy discussion about guardian dating rules that I'd almost have liked to listen to.

"We need to stop this," she hissed to me. "I can't pull off the same stunt with the guardians twice. And Rose and Dimitri won't let us leave again, anyway. Once we're back in Court, our time to act is over."

"I know," I reluctantly admitted.

A few minutes later, Ava and I had a brief respite, escaping the stifled motel room to go to a Chinese takeout and pick up our order. Ava exhaled a long breath as soon as we were out of earshot.

"Oh my god! One more forced discussion about totally uninteresting matters and I'm going to crack!"

"We blew it," I muttered. "We've lost my parents' trust because your parents now trust us completely. That's kind of ironic." I told her what Lissa had said to me.

She grimaced. "Anton, we can't do this without them. I know we didn't want them involved at all, initially, but without Lissa's healing and Christian's fire, where would we be now? What do we do without Rose and Dimitri if something like the church incident happens again? Not even to speak of the practical skills we'd be lacking, and, oh, if we ever need to hot-wire a car, we're doomed. We need them. If they go back to Court and stay there, we're finished. We could as well take the rings and leave."

"I know," I growled, again, cursing my helplessness.

"We need to regain their trust."

"I think they already noticed too much for us to tell them that there is no secret. How can we regain their trust without telling them the secret?"

"Well, maybe…"

"Oh no, you're not thinking what I think you're thinking. Ava!"

"Look, my parents know, and they're not freaking out. Hell, Christian even knows that he might not be around so see me grow up, and he's keeping it together perfectly. Dimitri and Rose are just as strong, Anton. They would be able to take it."

"But you'd undo it, if you could. If you could untell your parents, you would do it!"

Ava glanced at me. She was biting her lips again. "I don't know."

"You don't… what?"

"I don't know if I would undo it. They… they've become my parents for real now. They… I think they're starting to _love_ me."

They're starting to love me.

For the rest of our errant, I tried to picture Rose and a Dimitri's faces when they learned I was their son. I tried to picture them looking at me with the parent kind of love in their eyes. But I couldn't. I couldn't picture it without also picturing Dimitri's face when he learned that his love was going to die. I would never be able to take seeing that look on his face. That had to never happen.

I left it to Ava to talk to the restaurant guy and pay for our food. She pushed a few bags into my hands and shooed me out of the neon-lit room, and in return, she left me in peace to sort out the roller-coaster thoughts in my mind.

If I didn't tell my dad that he was my dad, we would go back to Court. If we went back to Court, we would lose our chance of getting to Robert before he got to my mom. Ultimately, it came down to the choice between my dad _hearing about_ losing Rose, or him _losing_ Rose.

That was a pretty obvious choice.

I told Ava yes in the last second of free speech before Rose opened the door for us.

We spread out everywhere with our takeout boxes. I ended up sitting next to Christian on the floor, maybe because we'd both sought out a quiet corner. Our backs were against the wall, and our outstretched legs disappeared under one of the beds. I ate in silence, still trying to brace myself for what I would have to do. Thinking about how to do it. 'I'm your son, Rose.' 'Dimitri, you're my dad.'

"Are you okay?"

It took me a moment to realize that Christian had addressed me. Raising my head, I also realized that he'd been watching me for a while now.

"How okay can I be?" I shrugged. He knew everything, after all. Suddenly, I found myself overwhelmed by the wish to just simply talk to him right now. It would be so liberating.

Across the room, Ava met my eyes over her box of chicken noodles, chopsticks halfway to her mouth. She glanced briefly over to Christian, and must have understood my wish immediately, because she promptly dropped her chopstickful of noodles and chose precisely this moment to discover a sudden and very keen – not to mention very noisy – interest in the story of how my parents first met.

"You have a really wonderful daughter," I quietly told Christian. I don't know if I could love Ava any more than I already did, but in that moment, I could have built a temple for her.

"I'm starting to realize this," he replied, eyes resting on her with quiet longing. "And I really want to keep her," he added, almost to himself.

"I really want to keep my mom," I agreed.

"We can't go back to Court now. We have to continue, with or without them."

"Preferably with them. Not only because we need their protection, but also because we'd have one hell of a time trying to get away from them."

"Protection… You really have no idea of what you can do, do you, Anton?"

"Hu?"

"Never mind. Yes, we should stay with them. But if they're determined to drag us back to Court, they will do exactly that unless we tell them what they want to know."

"Ava and I think that that's what we should do."

Christian blinked. "Tell them they're your parents?"

"Yes."

"Um…" Christian looked around the room for a while. Rose and Dimitri were both telling their story to Ava with some enthusiasm, supported by Lissa whenever they glossed over a sketchy point. "You know what I would have done if Ava had marched up to me and told me she was my daughter?"

"Freaked out?"

"Nope. I wouldn't even have taken her seriously enough to freak out. I would have laughed in her face and told her pretty clearly to get lost." He paused. "And Rose's version of doing that is probably a punch in the face. So, you know, maybe you want to take it a little slower."

I sat up straight and turned towards him, regardless of what Rose and Dimitri might think.

"So you don't think telling them at all is the dumbest idea in history?"

He snorted. "Not sure the usual standards of stupidity apply to us anymore. You know, I wouldn't normally promote confronting people about intimate details of their future children years before they are born, but, well, in this case..."

"So you think we should do it? Let them know?"

"This is your decision, Anton. It's your secret to tell. I can only say that it worked out for us. And that… well, Lissa and I had the same thought. We talked about it earlier."

"So you approve."

"We think it might be the only way to stop them from taking us to Court. I would only advise that you do it gradually. Let them figure things out for themselves. Both Lissa and I did, and I think that helped us tremendously, at least where accepting that it is actually the truth is concerned."

Later, when Ava and I were snuggled up in our usual spots – on the floor – I relayed what Christian had said to her.

"So we take it slow," Ava said. "Drop a few hints. They have to figure it out before we reach Court, though. Maybe we need to find some ways to prolong this drive."

"That sure would help."

"We could probably make a case for Lissa to need feeding again. She used some energy healing you."

"And you and Christian used magic fighting."

There was a pause. Then: "Are you ready for this, Anton?"

"Nope. Not in the least. Were you?"

"No." Ava smiled. "But… I have never before heard him call me his daughter. I have now. That's worth something."

I was almost asleep when Ava's whispered voice wound its way to me once more: "You know, it's quite a story – the way your parents found to each other."

"I guess it is," I mumbled sleepily. I had heard that story a few times. The forbidden-ness of it, their struggle keep it secret, then my dad's Strigoi adventure and my mom's utter stubbornness to let such a minor thing as that stop her star-crossed love. Their happiness when they could finally be together, and their joy when they realized that they could have children and were about to have a son.

'My son.' How would it sound out of Rose's mouth?

* * *

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	20. Get It?

"My son?" Rose chewed distractedly. "I don't know. I imagine he'd… have dark hair?"

We had managed to only drive for about two hours the next morning. Then I had claimed to be starving, and upon Dimitri's suggestion that we pass by a drive-through and eat in the car, Lissa and Ava had staged an outcry at the idea of having to dine in the car. This had resulted in us sitting comfortably in another diner, taking excruciatingly slow bites of our food while riddling Rose and Dimitri with questions about family planning.

"My, that is so creative, Rose," Christian jibed. "What would your son be like? He'd have dark hair. You must be a psychic, how did you know?"

"I don't see the point of discussing this at all," Dimitri remarked, exasperation fighting its way through his guardian mask. "Since we agreed not to have any children."

"For now," Rose interjected hurriedly, and Lissa insisted: "A guy can dream."

"Spirit kids aren't in nearly as much danger as you seem to think they are," I remarked. I had been leaving the talking mostly up to the others – seeing as, in contrast to me, they actually seemed to enjoy annoying the hell out of my parents – but Dimitri's refusal to acknowledge the _possibility_ of them _possibly_ having children in the future was bugging me at an irrationally deep level. Even though I happened to know for sure that he was wrong.

"So what do you imagine your son would be like, Dimitri?"

Dimitri raised his eyebrow. "Tall."

"I think your son would be a real good fighter," Lissa pretended to look dreamily into the air. "You know, with parents like you, he'd probably be as good as a fully trained guardian by, say… sixteen…"

"Bet you he would," Rose grinned.

"How would you call him?" Christian asked. It earned him another exasperated look from Dimitri.

"Seriously, Christian? Baby names?"

"I'd go for a semi-Russian name," Christian continued, unfazed. "So he can live both in Russia or here without anyone manhandling the pronunciation of his name."

"That's exactly why I was given my name, actually," I piped up. Every time I contributed something to this lopsided conversation, there was a little flutter in my stomach. I was barely able to eat, and that was saying something for me.

"Yes, Anton is a nice name," Rose mused.

It was especially unnerving because they were proving themselves as thickheaded as a whole herd of cows.

"And I bet your son would be really honorable," Ava said. "He'd get that from Dimitri."

It also made me sound very old-fashioned, but I decided to take this as a compliment.

"And he'd probably be prone to do crazy things," Christian added innocently. "He'd get that from Rose."

Definitely not a compliment.

"But he'd do those crazy things reasonably, because he'd have Dimitri levelheadedness in him," Lissa corrected with a pointed look to her boyfriend.

We weren't dropping a few hints for my parents to pick up. We were showering them with cues. We were deluging them with blatantly obvious evidence.

The results, so far, were… somewhat anticlimactic.

"Since you guys are obviously trying to nominate the slowest eater on earth," Rose announced upon finishing her last bite, "I think I'll have a doughnut to while away the time you spend nursing your fries." Carrying out this plan, she turned to a waitress and asked for her favorite – a chocolate glazed doughnut.

"My mom loves doughnuts," I mumbled awkwardly. "I got my doughnut love from her." Jeez, I really sucked at this.

"Your mom sounds like a reasonable woman," was all Rose had to say to this, prompting Lissa's turn to give an exasperated eye-roll.

"Are you done now?" Dimitri was growing impatient with the protracted affair of our lunch. "We should get going again."

"You are just as impatient as Anton is sometimes," Ava chimed with that deceptively guileless tone of hers.

I frowned. "I'm not impatient."

"You are," she countered, "but mostly when we're on the other end of the feeding process."

"Dimitri is just as impatient to be done with the food as Anton is to get food," Lissa clarified sweetly.

Oh yes, they were having so much fun making jibes at me.

"You're such a tyrant sometimes, Rose," Lissa complained when she and Dimitri finally ushered us out of the diner. "I really enjoy being out of Court for a change."

"You'll be again, because you agreed on a weekend trip," Christian reminded her, earning him another exasperated (but also indulgent) eye-roll.

"You know, this trip could go on for a while, if you were just willing to tell us what you're hiding," Rose told Lissa pointedly. This elicited a simultaneously groan from all the rest of us.

Suddenly, Rose tensed. "Dimitri."

He turned back; he'd been walking ahead of us, making sure nothing was lurking in the parking lot.

"That car. I've seen it before." Rose's voice had gone from playfully light to terse and dead-serious. "It's following us."

Dimitri took one look at the car she pointed at. It was a small light-blue Chevy; a car I wouldn't particularly notice anywhere. There had probably been dozens of the kind and color on the road we'd been taking to get here from Adrian. But Dimitri didn't dismiss Rose's concern as easily as I did. He made a quick hand gesture to her and took a few steps forward to look at the blue car's license plate. His body had taken on an almost feline quality of absolute alertness.

"Michigan," he declared. He dropped the word with an ominous heaviness.

They both desperately scanned the parking lot and the diner's front, but there was nothing.

"We've got to go," Rose said, strained.

"He could have manipulated our car."

"Then get another one."

This time, Dimitri had no qualms about the legal side of his car choice. Without the slightest bit of hesitation, he marched up to a decently sized four-wheel drive, Rose herding us along behind him. I tried to keep up with their processing speed, but I had yet to recognize the threat here. The parking lot was currently empty but for a row of cars, and it was in full view to the people in the diner. It was as unlikely a venue for an attack as ever I'd seen one, and a very unfortunate spot for stealing a car, in my view. But clearly, both Rose and Dimitri had a different opinion about this.

The full weight of just how bad they assessed the situation to be came to me when Dimitri swung back his elbow and deftly crashed it into the driver's side window of the 4x4.

Lissa cried out indignantly. "Dimitri, you can't just-"

"I can and I will, your majesty, because I'm doing my work."

Dimitri was already in the car. I couldn't see what he was doing in there – I was trying to get a glimpse and learn initially, but was quickly distracted by the apparent owner of the car, who was running out of the diner screaming and waving his arms. Following behind him was what I took to be the entire patronage of upstanding citizens who wanted to either stop a crime or stop a crime from taking place without them seeing.

"I think we'd better hurry," I muttered. This was one angry mob I did not want to make closer acquaintance with.

"Get in," Rose ordered, a command that no one dared oppose, so we scrambled for the doors and folded ourselves in. A car didn't offer much safety from a mob, but Rose seemed to have no doubt in Dimitri's vehicle-acquisition strategy and ability, and she was right, because the instant the frantic owner of our recently acquired car was upon us, the car jolted to life, leaped a few feet forwards and then took off with us through the parking lot, tires screeching and burning rubber leaving behind black traces and a telling smell.

And it was good it did, because we'd hit the road and were careening past the line of vehicles into the highway when our rental exploded.

It didn't go up in a ball of flame, as it did in movies. Instead, it gave a sharp jerk, as if hopping into the air a few inches. The motor hood flew open, releasing a tendril of smoke, and flames licked out in places. I hoped the onlookers had the good sense to get some distance between themselves and the poor Volvo, because I was sure that this wasn't the best it could do yet, explosionwise. The last thing I saw before we left the diner and its parking lot behind was the blue Chevy rolling away from the commotion, out on the highway after us.

It _was_ following us.

"Of course he wasn't going to give up all that easily," Dimitri muttered under his breath. He was exceeding the speed limit by about a hundred percent, jerking left and right to avoid the other cars. Ava, Lissa, Christian and I tumbled from side to side with the motion of the car – we had all squeezed into the back bench, which was all the car had to offer. At least the tight fit reduced our tumbling about considerably – we were so narrowly wedged into the seat that there wasn't any room to slide.

"He must have waited for us outside the hotel," Rose cursed. "I was afraid of that, but with how he can conceal himself, there was no way I could have spotted him."

"Not the moment for self-criticism, Rose," Lissa told her. The next turn threw us to the right, and all their weight pressed against me as they leaned with the sharp turn. I struggled to twist around and look out the rear window.

"I can't see him." It was difficult to talk with three people lying on top of you. "Oh, damn it, I can. He's still there."

The weight was thrown off me as Dimitri jerked the car to the right, cutting in front of a truck to make an exit. I had a brief near-death experience as the truck hooted angrily, a deep, bone-jarring noise that very much sounded like the last thing a person was likely to hear in their life. But Dimitri slipped out of reach of the truck's wheels and rolled onto the exit, speeding up again until a crossing forced him to slow.

Another disturbing noise sounded behind us, a crash and the tear of metal on metal. I turned back just in time to see the blue car disentangle from the other car it had just bumped shoulders with. The little blue one slithered, rocked back and forth before picking up speed again, the angry long gash in its side not impeding it visibly. Dimitri, by this time, had passed the interjection and was a long way ahead of it. He turned right, now out of sight from our pursuer by a line of buildings, and swiftly used the cover to make another turn.

"I can probably throw him off on the way through this town and get on the highway again. If only we don't-" He cut himself off with a curse. There was a construction area ahead of us; the street was completely blocked.

"Out," he commanded, already out of his seat the moment the car lurched to a stop. We followed suit, and, ignoring the looks of a handful of construction workers, left the car with doors wide open, crossed the barrier to the dirty construction site and made for the narrow strip of concrete that was still there next to the wide whole in the ground. Passersby were clearly not meant to take this way, because we had about two feet of ground to plant our feet on, and we were racing over this catwalk at full tilt. Indignant shouts and calls for caution followed us as we balanced single-file along the dusty ditch, Rose bringing up the rear.

"Splitting up won't make any sense now," I shouted out to her, just as a precaution. "Not when he can't see who's going where!"

"I'm not going to bail when there's no use to it, don't worry," she called back, only supporting my worry that she'd be off the second she'd think that she was keeping us safe by it.

We had put the construction site behind us and chased along on the sidewalk.

"If we want to make sure we shake him," Lissa panted, "We have to stay somewhere where there aren't any people. He might not attack us where there's a crowd, but he can conceal himself too well."

Which was probably just what he'd done on the square in Adrian when we'd waited for Dimitri and the car. He had the same powers as Lissa had. He could make himself look like the next guy if he wanted to.

"Right," Dimitri muttered. He'd been leading us into the direction of the town center, but doubled back on the next turn.

There was a flash of blue at the end of the alley. "Back," I screamed. "Turn back!"

No question asked, we all turned on our heels and ran back where we'd come from. Rose was in the lead now.

A pot of flowers crashed down on the pavement, narrowly missing her head. She leaped to the side.

"Keep running," Dimitri yelled from behind. We kept running. Lissa was breathing heavily already.

I heard Ava yelp, accompanied by several sharp cracking sounds. Swiveling around, I found her standing in the middle of reddish dust and shards, clutching her shoulder. Tiles had fallen from a roof.

"Are you hurt?" I pulled her with me.

She hissed. "It's okay."

Her shoulder hurt her, but she kept running. More tiles exploded on the pavement in front of us, showering Rose with dust and chunks of brick.

"Damn it, how long is his reach?" Rose exclaimed as she danced around the debris.

"If he's on foot, we have to be able to outrun him," Lissa wheezed. "He's an old man, he can't be any faster than me, and I'm the slowest one of us."

"This way," Rose said, and disappeared into a narrow pedestrian's alley. Passing through that, we made sure that Robert was in fact on foot.

The hitch was that the alley ended in exactly the construction area that had obstructed our way earlier. We were standing in front of a huge hole in the ground, big enough for the foundations of a house. It extended to the far side of the street we had attempted to pass with our abandoned car.

"Can't go back," Christian informed us even before I had turned around again. When I did, I noticed why; the dark figure approaching us from where we'd entered the footpath could only be him.

We were trapped.

"I hate this," Rose muttered. "Is there any way I can just give him a good old punch in the face?"

"We have to cross the ditch," Ava shouted. "It's the only way we can go!"

"There's no way out of there once we're in it," Rose protested.

"That's something we'll have to worry about later," Dimitri urged. "If we stay there won't be a later."

I saw Rose and Dimitri share a brief look. But Ava was already starting push the fence away that prevented random pedestrians from falling into the construction site. With Dimitri's and my help, our way was clear.

The walls were steep and there were no footholds, so Ava, who didn't hesitate for a second, lowered herself until she dangled over the abyss, and then simply let herself drop. It was still a pretty long fall, but the ground was soft earth. We followed her example one by one, and reassembled once down in the ditch, covered in earth and soot.

Now, evidently, the time to worry about getting out had come.

"Follow me!" Ava didn't waste any time brushing herself off. She started for the other end of the foundation trench, where we had left the car. I didn't know whether the car was still there; the place wasn't in view from either here or upstairs. And there were definitely no more construction workers. In the certainly no more than twenty minutes that had passed since we'd left the car, the area had been deserted. I briefly wondered whether Robert had made everyone leave, when Ava shouted: "Lissa! Topple that crane!"

"What?" Lissa looked at the thing, gaping. It was a dirty yellow tower crane, small where construction equipment was concerned, but the power required to get such a colossus to budge must be tremendous. "I can't, it's too heavy!"

"Take Anton's hand, you have to try. Tipp it so it leans on the wall, it's just close enough. We can use it to climb out. And be fast, Robert is almost there."

I scrambled for Lissa's hand, trying to make out just how close Robert was. He must be in no hurry, deeming us trapped already or else he really could not keep up with our speed. I focused on our group. Lissa was staring at the crane, concentration making her narrow her eyes. She was gripping my hand as if she was physically pushing against the rusting metal bar of the vehicle. So far, nothing had happened.

"I can't do this," she pressed out through clenched teeth. "We have to find another way."

"There is no other way," Ava stated mercilessly. "You fail and we're trapped."

Lissa just spared enough of her energy to give her an irritated glare. When she turned back towards her task, she must have attacked the innocent construction crane with redoubled effort. A low growl escaped her, and the towering thing shook.

"This way, push it this way," Ava quickly cheered her, gesturing wildly. I was holding my breath as the big metal structure began to sway. I think a sweat broke out on my face even though I wasn't doing anything.

Suddenly, I became aware of a burst of light where I assumed Robert to be. I couldn't explain this, until I heard Christian mutter. "Damn it, it's too far away. I can't keep the flame large enough to bother him."

Wordlessly, I extended my free hand to him. He briefly narrowed his eyes as if put out by the idea of holding my hand, but he took it, and the entry to the alleyway was obstructed by a solid wall of fire.

"He's not giving up," Rose said, glinting towards the flames. "He's still there."

And he was countering the fire, too. Christian was having a hard time keeping the wall intact.

Lissa gave a strangled groan with the strain of magic use. I felt both of their hands shaking slightly in mine. With a wet crunch, the heavy slabs of concrete that kept the crane upright became loose, one side lifting up in the air, tipping the towering structure above. Supported by both Rose's and Ava's cheering, the whole thing toppled over, swaying dangerously before crashing with a thud and metal banging onto the edge of the ditch's walls.

"You did it!" Ava yelled, clapping Lissa on the shoulder.

"Quick, let's go," Rose shouted, instantly on her way up the crane. Lissa and Christian loosened their grip on me, and I noticed that it was my hands that were shaking, not theirs. My knees felt uncomfortably wobbly when I followed them towards the place closest to the wall where we could reach the metal bars of the crane. Rose had already pulled Lissa and Ava up, and Christian was hanging midway on the crane.

"Up you go," Dimitri urged me, and I gripped a bar I could reach. It made for surprisingly easy climbing, but I still Dimitri was close at my heels, trying to get me to climb faster.

Ava was standing at the edge of the ditch, extending a hand to me to pull me up.

"Now I need your help, too, Anton. Christian, can you keep it up for a little longer?"

They held on to me again. Christian restarted the fire magic – the flames had gone out while he was distracted climbing. At first, I had no idea what Ava was doing, until I heard the low gurgling sound. Water started to seep out from the ground and the walls of the ditch –

– she was flooding the construction site!

Robert would not be able to follow us through a lake, unless he wanted to take a swim.

Meanwhile, I was having a hard time keeping my breathing in check. My face felt like it couldn't decide whether it was feeling hot or cold, and I had the distinct impression that my legs wouldn't be keeping me up for much longer.

"Anton?" Rose was suddenly in front of me, a look of worry on her face. "Are you okay?"

Things began to swim confusingly in front of my eyes, and I couldn't see how far Ava was with her obstruction work. Rose gripped my shoulders, and she was saying something I couldn't hear. Then my knees buckled and the ground collided with me in a jarring impact. Dimly, I realized that Rose's hands were either side of my face, and she was calling my name. I blinked.

"Hu?" I uttered intelligently.

"Anton? Anton, what's wrong? Can you hear me?"

"Um… yes, of course." I was relieved that I was at least still upright, sitting on my heels and knees with Rose steadying me. Dimitri was crouched beside me, a hand on my shoulder, and Lissa was shifting her worried glance from me to Christian and Ava. They were wrapping up their work, no longer drawing strength from me.

I became aware that we had to start running again soon, and that I had better get up now. I put a foot back on the ground where it belonged, but without Rose pulling me up, I don't think I would have gotten far. I was momentarily stunned at the view that enfolded in front of me – I was standing at a muddy brown rectangular lake – before I remembered that that had been the purpose.

"Okay, this is our chance," Dimitri urged again. "He'll have to go around it. Off we go." He and Rose were supporting me on either side, and I was glad for it. It was only when we started stumbling along the street again that I realized that our car was no longer were we'd left it.

"Up ahead," Christian pointed. "We can borrow one of these."

My sight was marginally impeded by the bout of stars that had decided to party in front of my eyes, and I didn't see the cars, but they must have been there, because Dimitri handed my weight over to Ava to speed ahead. That way, we wouldn't have to wait while he used his hotwiring mojo.

When my head started to clear a little, I was able to keep on my feet enough so that I didn't need to hang from Rose and Ava's shoulders anymore. Dimitri was up ahead, not wasting any time but picking the first car he reached in the parking line. We still had a few yards to go, being much slower.

"Maybe this time, we can outrace him with a car," Lissa panted desperately. "Robert probably relies on compulsion to-"

I didn't hear the rest of her sentence. I did hear a scream, but mostly, I just felt like my stomach was still up there with them while the rest of my body had taken a sudden downward lurch. I hit the ground, hard, before I even realized I'd been falling. Neither had I seen the hole I had stepped into. I just lay there, flat on my back the way I had landed, gasping to get the breath back that the fall had knocked out of me. Above, I could see several thick metal pipes jutting out from the solid packed earth to cross the rectangular pit. I was lucky I hadn't hit one of these. Also, I could see the edge of a metal cover peeking out overhead. This must be another construction trench, and the cover must have slipped from the hole it was covering just as I'd been about to put my foot on it. What I could not see was anything of Rose, Lissa or Christian. I couldn't see them, and I couldn't hear them, even though they had been there only seconds before.

Ava had gone down with me, though. And she lay in a crumpled heap next to me.

I scrambled over to her, still trying to catch my breath. She was on her back, slumped awkwardly to the side. Her face was turned away; I placed my hand on her cheek to turn her towards me, brushing away the hair that had flown all over, holding her head so I could get a look at her. Her eyes were closed; she was pale, really pale.

Where I'd brushed her face, I had left red marks on her cheeks.

I looked at my hands. They were bloody, bloody where I'd cupped her head. Ava was bleeding, badly, from her head. She must have not been so lucky with the metal pipes when she was falling down.

For a moment, I stared at my hands, stared at Ava's still face. I realized my hands were still shaking badly when I put my fingers on her neck. Or maybe they were shaking again.

She was alive. She had a pulse.

I drew shuddering breath. I knew I had to stay calm now, I had to collect myself and clear my head and think straight. I couldn't rely on Ava's sagacity now, because she was the one hurt and unconscious and I had to save her. Everything depended on my keeping it together now.

I leaned my head back towards the square of blue sky above me.

"Rose?"

No answer.

"Lissa? Dimitri?"

I shoved desperation back into the remote corner of my mind where it belonged.

"Guys? Anyone? Are you still there?"

Obviously, they weren't, or else they were not in a state to answer, which would mean nothing good.

I knew that head wounds tended to bleed a lot, and I knew that that didn't necessarily mean they were particularly dangerous. I knew that a person could survive a concussion, and that even unconsciousness didn't always end up in disaster. But Ava was so pale. The pit was deep, at least seven feet to the ground and three to the pipes. They were solid metal, and I was sure they could do damage. A lot.

I laid Ava's head back on the ground, gently, after pulling off my shirt and putting it under her so there would be no dirt in the wound. Then I pulled myself up and together to assess our situation.

I found that I was still barely able to keep to my feet. When I tried to pull myself up on the pipes to get a look out of the excavation, I found that my arms wouldn't hold my weight. I tried again and stopped just in time to stop the stars dancing in front of my eyes from taking over.

I collapsed down on the ground the second I let go of the pipe. I couldn't climb out, let alone drag Ava up there. My only hope was that another pedestrian might pass by, and that they would not be stupid enough to join us down here.

I lifted Ava up to rest against me, because it felt soothing to hold her. She was still bleeding a lot. The shirt was red, and I could feel the warm wetness on the back of her head. I checked her pulse again. And instantly prayed to god that I imagined it getting weaker.

I had grown up with a spirit user. I had always refused Lily to heal my little scratches and bruises, even though she had wanted to practice her skills. Still, I had always known that I would never have to suffer through any serious injuries, because Lily would always be there to help me. In this time, Lissa had always been there to help, healing me from Robert's attack, healing Rose when she was close to death. But now that Ava needed her, that I needed her more than I ever had, she wasn't here. Neither Lily nor Lissa were here to help her now.

I had no idea where Lissa was. It might be hours before they managed to shake Robert off, provided that the cause for their disappearance was indeed that Robert was chasing them, and not that he … had already gotten to them.

I had a means to reach Lily, though. I had one, desperate means.

I could go back to our own time.

The rings were always with us. The rings that Lily had charmed to be our connection to the future, to the time we had been born to live in. By now, we had no idea how much magic was left in them. Magic drained with time, and we had stayed much longer than we had intended to. But I could try. It was the only thing left for me to try.

My ring was lying against my chest, a tiny chain holding the clunky silver. It was boldly out in the open, because my shirt was a crumpled and bloody mess. It was as if it was taunting me to use it. I closed my hand around it briefly, then reached up to my neck to free it from its chain. Gently pushing her hair aside, I did the same for Ava. Her ring felt warm to the touch, resting on her skin.

In my palm, the rings had the weight of the world attached to them. I could go back in time, save Ava. Lily had rigged the magic to that the charms, once activated, would bring us back to where we had left, reunite us with our bodies from the future. When we had left, Lily had been right beside us. Both she and their mother had been close by. Help would be close by. Ava would be healed within minutes.

And Rose and Christian would stay as dead as they had been always been to us. There would be no second chance. Once we were back in our own time, we would stay there, and no amount of good will could bring Rose and Christian back to life.

We knew them now. We knew them and loved them. Although we would be returning to a time where nothing had changed, things had changed for us. It would be as if my mom and her dad had died all over again. Only this time, we knew them, and we knew what we'd lost.

Would Ava ever forgive me for that? For taking away her one chance of a happy family? Taking away her one chance to make her mother smile again, like she did so much in this time. To share her father's passion for magic as she grew up, knowing that spirit wasn't the only other element in the house?

I didn't know. But I knew that for me, it wasn't much of a choice. I'd rather risk her hate me risk her life.

I took her hand, holding it close in mine for a while. The rings felt heavy, even heavier than solid chunks of silver normally did. I held them ready, letting one hover over her finger, one over mine.

With one last deep breath, I took my farewell from Rose, my mother. From my dad, whom I could never make as happy as she could. I was sorry that Ava couldn't get a farewell, as well.

Simultaneously, I slipped the ring on our fingers. One on mine, one on hers. I held our two ringed hands together, warming hers in mine.

Waiting for something to happen.


	21. Cause I Exist

**\- Lily -**

My hands were sweaty.

I was losing my mind. There could be no other way to explain this. I had been using spirit so lavishly, and I wasn't used to dealing with the consequences. I had no experience in spirit's vicious vengeance. I had no idea what it would do to me. I knew that spirit caused mental problems. Depression for Mom. Manic depression for Adrian.

Hallucinations for me.

I surreptitiously wiped my palms on my pants. Ever since my mom looked me in the eyes and told me that my dead father would be coming home from a business trip the next day, the thought of having to keep up the compulsion for her and Anton's dad had been hell for me. Every time I saw Mom, and thought about touching the magic within me again, the memory of the serene look in her eyes flashed up. The conviction with which she had proclaimed the return of her long-dead husband. The life in her eyes.

"It was all my imagination," I whispered to myself. "It was all in my head." Only, how could my imagination come up with something so beautiful as the light in my mother's eyes, and so frightening and terrible at the same time?

I couldn't put off renewing the compulsion. If I delayed compelling their doubts about Anton's and Ava's absence away, and allowed suspicion to rise within them, it would be much, much harder to keep their worry for their son and daughter down. I had to keep it up, or else I would be responsible for the fear and heartbreak that would result.

I saw Dimitri coming before he saw me. I was sitting on a bench in a quiet part of the Court premises, waiting for him. Really, I would have preferred the seclusion of a room to do what I had to do, somewhere no one could watch; but I rarely managed to catch him anywhere as private as that. This spot was fairly good as privacy went. And I needed it, today of all days.

"Hello Lily," he said.

"Dimitri!" I looked up, pretending to be mildly but pleasantly surprised by him. "Are you on patrol?" Of course he was on patrol – I had arranged to intercept him here, after all.

He sat down next to me. "Yes. But I only have half an hour to go."

"Should you be sitting down so comfortably when you're patrolling?" I had meant it as a joke, but I think I didn't quite pass on the intention, because suddenly Dimitri looked at me with concern glimmering in his eyes.

"Lily, are you alright? You seem a little nervous."

Nervous? Heck yes, I was nervous! There was this terrible scene playing in my head, of Dimitri telling me that he had to go home now, because his wife was waiting for him. I could practically hear his voice. 'I have to go. Can't let Roza wait any longer.' I could practically see his smile, too. My nerves were strung as tightly as Vivienne Conta's pants over her butt, so much was I expecting him so say something like this any minute. Or rather, expecting myself hear him say it.

"Lily?"

I snapped out of it. Dimitri was watching me with alarm more than simple concern now. Why the hell did he have to be so perceptive?

"Yes!" I stammered. "No, I'm alright. I'm fine. I was dreaming. Of.. college. I was dreaming of college."

"I thought you were looking forward to college," he said, the look of alarm never leaving his eyes.

"I am," I said quickly. "But it's also kind of frightening. You know… it's all new and unfamiliar…"

I hoped I'd been convincing enough. I had been, apparently, because his frown ceased. "You'll be all right, Lily," he assured me gently. "You'll find your way."

"I guess I will," I told him lamely. A little more quickly than called for, I got up and gathered my bag and the book I had pretended to read when he passed by.

"I'd better go," I said. "I have to.. do… things. College things."

With this most sketchy excuse in the history of sketchy excuses, I raced off, leaving him sitting on the bench by himself.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't use the magic right now.

My heart was fluttering in a desperate attempt to fill the giant emptiness that fear carved out in my chest. I took several deep breaths, trying to steady myself. It took all I had to pull myself together, but I think I made a decent job of not looking like a frantic mess by the time I reached the palace. I tried to keep my mind off the horrible incident of the mention of my father, but it kept playing in my head. I couldn't stop it. It followed me all the way up the stairs.

'Lily', Mom had said. 'Your father is coming home from his trip.'

It had felt like someone had shot an arrow through my heart and dragged it out of my body with it. An ice bucket emptied over my already damp head. For a moment, I had been irrationally scared of her. I had been scared that this woman was not my mom. That she was some kind of monster. Shapeshifter. Whatever. That she would turn round with eyes rimmed in red, traces of blood running down the corners of her lips.

Then she had turned around.

"Lily, what's wrong? Are you coming?"

And she had been my mom again. The life in her eyes extinguished like a flame. The hope wiped out, gone. I had put a foot in front of the other, making myself walk. I had wanted to ask what she had just said, whether I had heard right. Surely I had just misunderstood her. She had said, 'Your feather is running low on the tip.' Or, 'The farther this cunning hole comes it trips.' Well, only my feeble mind could come up with alternatives as silly, grammatically faulty, and completely absurd as that, but I really was clinging to the last straw here.

Once we had arrived in our palace apartment, I had actually searched for traces of my father. I had actually considered whether maybe I had been crazy the other way around. Maybe I had imagined him being dead all those years.

It turned out I had not. Everything was as it always had been. My mom was her normal dismal self. My dad was dead and remained predictably and obstinately dead. Everything indicated that I had just misheard what I thought my mom had said. That there had been nothing at all to worry about in the first place.

I had almost succeeded in making myself believe that. Almost. Then, simply needing to see my mom in all her comfortingly normal glory again, I had poked my head into our kitchen where she was busying herself, and she had suggested eating out tonight, which was a rare and happy occurrence seeing as she hardly ever even joined us for dinner at home.

Then I had suggested the Court Thai place, and all my tenuous credence in my sanity had been smashed without mercy.

"You know Christian hates that one," my mom had said.

Somehow, I had managed to keep my wits together this time, though my voice barely carried as I tonelessly mouthed: "Mom?"

She had looked up, and had been startled to see my horror-stricken expression.

"What's wrong, honey?" she'd asked in alarm.

"What did you just say?" It was only a scared whisper.

"I said the Thai place is fine! But honey, it's really not that important!"

I had survived dinner. I had forced myself to eat. I had even managed to finish the compulsion on her. But I hadn't slept since, and it had been the last time I'd had any real food.

My father was dead. He was dead, and he would stay dead, until my sister and Anton managed to do something about it. And if I was really, really lucky, I would have a shred of sanity left to my mind by the time the two were done with their job.

.

* * *

 **.**

 **\- Anton -**

The rings gleamed on my and Ava's fingers. They sat there and gleamed at me, mockingly. While the outcome of their magical effect was - absolutely nothing.

The rings were out of magic.

I kept Ava's hand in mine. Maybe it would only take a while. Maybe it would still work. Maybe I had to turn them around a little. Maybe I had to switch them.

I tried a multitude of possibilities before I couldn't put off conceding the truth anymore: the rings simply did not work.

I didn't even dwell on the long-term implications of this – namely, that Ava and I didn't have a means to ever return to our own time, mission accomplished or not – because much more urgent was the immediate meaning of this. I had no way of saving Ava.

Never in my life had I felt so utterly, completely helpless. I couldn't get out; I couldn't get help. I couldn't even get her to a human hospital, dangerous as that would be. I didn't even know how badly she was hurt.

I held her as close to me as I possibly could without hurting her. Futilely, I started calling for help again, until I was just too tired to go on. I wished the construction crew would return. Anyone, just anyone who could help.

I felt like I had given half of my strength to the Moroi to enhance their power and the other half to my fear for Ava. Left with nothing, I was exhausted and sore beyond measure. Still clutching Ava, I leaned my head back to the sandy wall of the pit, and had to fight the urge to close my eyes and just let oblivion wash over me.

Someone would have to find us eventually. And as long as that faint pulse was still shooting through my best friend's veins, there was hope.

When I finally heard footsteps, I didn't know whether I had been asleep or still was. A shadow fell over me; a head bent over the edge. I tried to shake the drowsiness from me, and blinked, unable to really see the person. There was a drop, and that someone was right in front of me. A hand reached out for me, lightly touching my forehead, and my eyes closed against my will, finally bringing redemption.

….

I was rolling. Back… and forth. Back… and forth. There was a steady humming noise, accompanied by hushed whispers. The rolling stopped, but now there was movement beside me instead. Then Ava's drowsy voice, saying my name, answered by a different voice, Lissa's, which was so beautifully soft and gentle that I almost let it lure me into sleep again. "He'll be okay, Ava. You don't need to worry."

It was the slight confusion in Ava's sleepy voice which made me cling to wakefulness. "What happened?" she said.

Lissa's voice recounted events that seemed vaguely familiar. Yes, that's right, thought my sleepy mind while I worked on prying my eyes open.

"He must have passed out from exhaustion," Lissa ended. "I'm afraid we took too much from him."

"I never knew that there was a limit to this," Ava softly murmured.

"Me either," I croaked, blinking. "But then, you don't usually try to create lakes."

Her face, hovering somewhere above me, broke into a smile. "I want to point out that I don't usually instigate people to destroy public property, either."

As I sat up, further inspection of my surroundings revealed that we were lying on the floor in what appeared to be the empty loading room of a utility van. Lissa was kneeling beside us, and I didn't even have to look around to know that Rose was there, too. I could feel the reassuring weight of her hand on my shoulder.

"They alright?" Christian twisted around from the passenger's seat up front. In the rearview mirror, Dimitri's brown eyes briefly met my matching ones.

"We're fine," Ava answered for us.

It reminded me that she hadn't been very recently. I started examining her more closely, but then resolved to just gather her up in a very tight hug that made her yelp in surprise.

"We had to leave you," Rose explained. "Robert was between us. We had to keep running for quite a while, but eventually we exhausted him, I guess. Then we returned to you, and you were both unconscious. I'm so sorry we couldn't be there sooner."

The car slowed down. Dimitri must be pulling over somewhere.

"Comrade? What's up?" Rose called.

Once parked, he turned around to us. "Now that our get-away car no longer needs to double as an ambulance, we need to switch vehicles. I've set my eyes on that one." He nodded towards something outside that I couldn't see. Christian did, though, and whistled.

"You have taste, Dimitri. A very expensive taste."

Dimitri raised an eyebrow. "No, I am merely well informed about the varying safety measures built in different types of cars, and go for the safe ones."

Under Christian's muttered remarks about the effectiveness of said safety measures against rampant spirit users, they both got out. While Dimitri set to work on his target, Christian opened the cargo doors for us. We filed into another roomy SUV-type car that I didn't really bother examining, and I instantly missed the comfort of the large cargo space as I tried to doze with my cheek squashed uncomfortably against the window. After a while, Ava gently tugged me awake.

"Come on out, Anton," she told me softly. "We're not going any further today."

She ushered me into another one in our long series of motel rooms, and I realized that I must have slept more soundly than I had thought, because I had no idea where the packet of French fries that Ava now shoved into my hand had come from.

It was only when I noticed her eyes lingering at my hands that I realized that the silver ring was still stuck on my finger, a blatant sign of defeat. I shrugged, mutely trying to tell her: _Does it matter now? Does it really matter that we have no way home, when we didn't even do what we came to do?_ But I could tell that that wasn't what she'd been thinking of.

I'd been so devastated by my failure that I had stopped to worry about how she would react to my attempt to abandon our parents to their fate. She looked at me in an odd way, but there was no resentment.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, all the same. "You were so… I was really afraid."

"For me?" she asked. I nodded, lowering my eyes. Then I felt her head lean against my knees; she had settled down next to my chair on the floor.

"It's only a few more hours' drive until we arrive at Court," Rose said, jerking me out of my dismal thoughts. "Can blood wait until we're there?"

I had almost forgotten that we were still heading for Court. Not that our most recent adventure had weakened the Moroi's resolve to stop that. Lissa and Christian quickly expressed a very urgent need for blood, and so did Ava, though with a little less fervor.

Rose narrowed her eyes. "Oh, no. You're trying to stall. It's not happening – we are going to Court. What happened only served to affirm that to me."

"You asked," Christian replied innocently.

"If you could just tell us what the big deal is, we could talk about it, but as long as you insist on clamming up, I won't budge, either."

I, along with Lissa, Christian and Ava, had to try hard to suppress a groan. We tried, Rose! But you are proving exceptionally slow on the uptake!

"Anton, that food isn't for decoration," Rose said, turning to me. "Eat something! You'll feel better."

"You sound like my mom," I told her spitefully.

Completely unaware of everybody's slightly expectant looks, she ignored the jab.

I listlessly started munching on my fries. Even though I was ravenous, they didn't taste like much. I was so fed up with the world right now than not even food could set it right.

"Dimitri, if we ever have kids," Rose said lightly, "It will clearly be up to you to watch over their diet. I'm feeding people with burgers, fries and doughnuts." It was a valiant attempt to brighten up the mood, but it achieved exactly the opposite. Even Dimitri, perched on the windowsill and keeping a keen lookout over the parking lot, found little humor in her comment.

"We're not going to have children, Rose," he said, barely keeping his voice over a menacing growl. "And I hardly think that this is the proper situation to discuss this."

Please let this be the end of that discussion. If they'd discuss having children now, I'd explode.

The angry frown growing on Rose's face told otherwise. "Why is that, Dimitri? Are you _still_ hung up on all the dangers to spirit children?"

With the very unpleasant sensation of my fry-filled stomach dropping through the floor, I realized that I had just discovered what the one and only topic that would get my parents to seriously argue was. And I really – really – wished I hadn't.

"Maybe we should ask Anton about how many people questioned him for his dhampir parentage. Because in case you hadn't noticed, he's dhampir-born and he's _just fine_!"

Dimitri took a breath, answering deliberately slowly. "Rose. Anton might have succeeded in hiding the extraordinary circumstances of his birth. But I doubt that we would be able to provide the same for any child of ours. I'm keeping firm in this. No children."

No children. Dad – really?

Breathe. Just breathe, I told myself. Mentally, I was begging them to stop. I had endured enough for one day. I so didn't need this.

"That's kind of a despotic stance for something that concerns both of us," Rose answered in a strained calm.

"But it's something that my conscience dictates, and that means that I will not bend." There was a dangerous glint in Dimitri's eyes, one that I had only ever seen once in my life: That one time someone had suggested he take another partner so as to better be able to care for me.

Rose drew a breath to retaliate.

And that was when I snapped.

"Will you just shut up!" I roared. Ava snatched her head up from my knee. Even I was surprised to find this energy within me. "Of course you're going to have children! So just shut up about it!"

I had never dared tell my dad to shut up about anything. I had hardly ever even dared to raise my voice in his presence.

"Anton." Rose didn't bother hiding her annoyance. "I realize this is our fault for discussing this in front of you, but it's really not-"

"Because I exist, don't I? I EXIST!"

Silence enveloped us, only marred by my heavy breathing. I hadn't even realized I had gotten so worked up.

"You… what?" Rose stared at me with eyes as big and round as headlights. "What are you saying?"

How are you going to deal with this now, Anton, my subconscious piped up diabolically. What are you going to say now?

"Anton?" Dimitri's voice had changed so dramatically it was hard to believe that this man had just adamantly argued against my conception. "What do you mean?"

"What I said," I slurred, helplessly. I wished Ava could just magically get me out of here.

"We tried to let you know," Lissa began to explain, her voice small. "We tried to make you understand. Slowly, so you wouldn't…"

Lissa's voice petered out as if the pressure in the room was physically handicapping her speech. I crumbled down in my chair, trying to hide and disappear through it. I looked at nothing but Ava's hands, which had gripped mine and were holding on tightly.

How had Ava done this? How had she endured the moments her parents realized who stood before them?

"Look, Rose, Dimitri," Christian said – he didn't sound awkward, but rather a little ticked off. "We tried to make this easier for you, but in the end, you just have to face it. So, both of you: meet your son. You know what we've been keeping from you now."

"Why did you keep it from us?" Rose whispered. I could picture her staring at me, but I didn't have the heart to look up.

"Precisely for this reason," Christian replied dryly. "Because it's kind of hard on a person to have their son travel back from the future while you're still debating having kids at all. We've been there, Lissa and I."

The most terrible thing that could happen yet was starting to happen now as I felt Ava's hands slowly slipping out of mine. It was kind of a knee-jerk reaction when I gripped them more tightly. I wouldn't ever let go of Ava's hands.

"Anton," she whispered, and her hands were gone, and I felt colder than I had ever felt until I there were other hands reaching for me, arms encircle my neck and a sweep of dark hair blown into my face. And as suddenly as that, I was captured in the overwhelming shelter of my mother's embrace.

Just like this, there was no more tension left in me. I could not resist these arms, and the all-encompassing feeling of being calmly swept into a safe haven wiped away the fear, the pain, the sleeplessness and the defeat. I closed my eyes and rested my head on her shoulder. Peace was a palpable thing then.

When I felt a small warm hand on my knee, I knew that in all this immensity, Ava had never left me, either.

It was a while until I opened my eyes again. Through the curtain of Rose's hair, I saw Dimitri, and my first thought was, oh shoot, he doesn't believe me.

He was – for lack of a better word – illuminated. He wasn't looking at me, or at Rose. He was looking into space, kind of dreamily, and his expression reminded me of someone watching kittens tumble about. Like he was seeing something adorable in front of his inner eye. Maybe me trying to make him believe that I was his son.

If it wasn't for the fact that my mom was still holding me and clearly believed me, this would greatly disturb me. She did believe me, didn't she? She would make him believe, too, right?

Rose withdrew, but she didn't let go of me. She held me at arm's length, and hypnotized me with her beautiful brown eyes. Whether it was the jumble of feelings I could barely discern in them that captivated me, or simply their shocking proximity, I couldn't tell.

"So we are going to have a child, after all." Dimitri was suddenly standing right behind us, a hand lightly on Rose's shoulder.

"I told you so," Rose whispered.

"Uh… you're okay with that…now?" I could have slapped myself the minutes I let those words out. I didn't want to offend Dimitri. I really didn't want to do that.

But he just smiled his kitten-watching-smile again. "Now that I know _you're_ going to be okay," he said. "Now that I know no one's going to dissect my child or put it in a cage." His smile deepened. That flabbergasted me because I now had to imagine him standing in front of not only one cute little kitten, but in the middle of a multitude of the cutest, fluffiest kittens this world had ever produced. His smile was so… intense.

I was having an effect paramount to the presence of a multitude of the cutest, fluffiest kittens to him?

Ooookay.

"Um… I hate to break it to you," Christian began, sounding like he needed to clear his throat. I suddenly realized that while I'd been hugging my mom and having pathetically kitten-filled imaginations about my dad, he, Lissa and Ava had been mutely trying to decide whether or not they should discreetly leave the room. I was glad they hadn't. They had been through what my family was going through now, and I wasn't quite ready to be all alone with my parents yet.

Christian continued. "But we still have a super-villain to catch. And we seriously need to rethink our recent approach."

Rose sighed. She was still watching at me. Somehow, her gaze managed not to make me uncomfortable.

"Oh, no, no, no, wait a second," Dimitri said. He was shaking his head as if coming out of a daze, and it was my turn to smile. Usually, my dad was so collected. He never stammered.

"Did you just say that you and Lissa… you've been debating having kids?"

In a rare display of totally unqueenlike behavior, Lissa gave a snort that could compete with Christian any day. "Yes, we have, Dimitri. And in case this is your way of alluding to the other thing Christian said… that is true, too. Ava's our daughter. Or, she's going to be."

Ava's eyes glowed at this. I think this was the first time she'd actually heard the younger Lissa say those words.

"Did you seriously never suspect any of this?" Christian asked, his usual laid-back sarcasm back in place. "We were dropping hints left, right and center since yesterday. You were really dense, Rose."

"Well, how would I suspect… How did you find out in the first place?" Rose asked, indignantly. "I mean… Jesus, you must be… how did you even get here? You can't even be born yet! I mean, you are most definitely not born yet, Anton."

Something in me just bubbled over at that. I felt a smile turn into a grin, and that grin turn into a chuckle as I watched her come to terms with the concept of time travel, her having a son, that son being present, …

I kept quiet while Lissa and Christian stumbled all over each other in their excitement to relate how they had found out about us. I kept watching Rose and Dimitri. My parents. Every now and then, their eyes would find mine. Rose's eyes were full of wonder. She kept turning her head towards me as if to make sure that I was still there. Dimitri… my dad was my dad. Really. It was as if he had suddenly turned into the person I knew from the future. Well, he was the person I knew from the future. But now he had this love in his eyes that I had always been able to see there. He'd known me for a few weeks, and he loved me already. He was looking forward to having me. It was a crazy thought – supercilious even – but I think in this moment, there were no walls in him. There was no guardian mask. There was just a young man with the exceptional chance of having children with the love of his life, and he was longing to live this dream. In his eyes, there was the joy of a fulfilled life.

He really wanted children that much. But he would have denied himself all of this for fear for my safety and happiness.

"And now we know that Anton has anger issues just like his parents, don't we? He just deals with them a lot better."

"I really want to know what it's like twenty years from now," Rose's awed voice travelled through to my consciousness. "Are there any cool fashion trends?"

"Wait, twenty years from now?" Dimitri said. "Rose, they're sixteen!"

"Fifteen, actually. We have fake IDs," Ava admitted.

"I guess ID's from the year two thousand thirty something would raise some suspicions," Christian said.

"Yes, twenty years from now," Rose continued unfazed. "Dimitri, we're not going to have kids _right away_."

"Uh, no, please don't," Christian teased with a fake air of disgust.

"I'm not going to tell you the year of my birth," I quickly interjected before this argument could get out of hand. "There are some things you'll have to figure out by yourselves."

"So I'm guessing that there is a really good reason for why we're hunting down Robert Doru aside from his current misgivings for Rose," Dimitri said. That put an end to our joviality for now.

"There is," Ava said. "But for now, his misgivings for Rose are all the reason we need."

"You know, maybe we've been going about this the wrong way," Lissa suddenly said. "We've been trying to counter magic with magic. We keep thinking that Robert is so powerful that guardians are a lost cause against him."

"Well, unless I develop a sudden strong resistance to magic, I feel fairly powerless compared to an angry spirit user," Rose remarked.

"Yes, when you're facing him head-on. But listen…"

* * *

 **That's a lot of cliffhangers resolved for you! Christian's not safe yet in Lily's time, and neither is Rose. Ava and Anton are still in the past, and still trying. And the secret is out! What do you think about Rose and Dimitri's reactions? I really hope I managed it in a way that was in character and not too sappy...**

 **Tell me what you think! I'll be sitting at my desk twiddling my thumbs, waiting or your reviews! (Please don't laugh now. I do that sometimes.)**


	22. Family Outing

**Thank you for all the reviews for the last chapter! It was a difficult one… all the feels and emotions… so your feedback was really appreciated!**

 **Several of you shared in Anton's face-palm about Rose and Dimitri's denseness. Just one comment on this: How dense were Lissa and Christian for not telling them that by the way, time travel is a possibility for spirit users?!**

 **:-)**

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I was swinging along in the flat bed of a van. Rose was teaching me graceful fighting but it looked very much like ballet to me. The space wasn't really large and we kept bumping into the walls, but Lissa was driving and seemed to enjoy the show. Rose repeatedly told me to get my feet off the ground, but I remembered that I had lost my ring and abandoned ballet in favor of searching for it. All I found were doughnuts, and Rose kept telling me that I didn't need the ring now and that there were only stakes here anyway, and sure enough, every time she reached into some obscure corner of the car, she came up with a stake, collecting a little heap of them, while all I managed to procure were more and more doughnuts. Then Dimitri, who sat on the passenger's seat buried in what appeared to be very many and very tiny cats, told me that I didn't need to go back because I already was in the right time, and just as I tried to remember why I would want to do something time-related in the first place, I realized that Ava was waiting for me, but I couldn't show up without my ring, she would scold me. Before I'd found the ring, I suddenly found myself in a small cluttered room with wooden walls, and wondered whether this was where Ava was waiting for me. I tried to figure out what we were supposed to do in here, but I couldn't even tell whether this room was used as a kitchen, a workroom, or a living room. There was a window that was blind with white stains – or maybe was it was really foggy outside – and cups and plates cluttered every surface, but they seemed mostly clean and standing there for lack of a cupboard. On the other side of the little room stood a table, barely visible under the tools strewn all over it, whose uses I couldn't tell for the most part. Something that could be either a torture instrument or a bolted screwdriver was mounted on the table's edge. The walls were made up of grey splintery wooden planks, worn with age. There were no decorations except from a small picture frame. It was sitting on the work bench, and was the only thing that was polished and absolutely free of dust. It showed two men, middle aged, though one looked as if he had been sick for some time. The other one was Robert.

"It's me and my brother."

I swiveled around. Robert stood in front of the wall opposite me. I suddenly realized that the room had no door.

"Rosemarie Hathaway killed him."

I blinked. His whole appearance seemed so colorless that for a moment I wondered whether he was a ghost. Then I realized that I had never seen him stand still for long enough to really examine him.

His eyes were the color of a cloudy sky, the blue washed out and faded, nothing like the vibrant hue of Christian's irises. His hair might have been brown once, but it was a grayish white now, leeching what little color there was in his skin. His worn brown leather jacket and dark shirt were the only things that looked substantial.

For the first time, I realized that he must be much younger than I had always thought he was. I knew he was seventy-something in my own time, and in my mind he'd always been the same fragile old man, even in the time I had come to capture him. He had always looked the part, too, though he couldn't have been much older than fifty when his brother had died. Then it occurred to me that I had no idea in what time I was right now. Had Robert transported me?

"I've seen it," Robert said. "How she killed him. I have seen the whole thing. I made her see it before she blocked me. You are not blocked to me."

"This is a dream," I muttered more to myself than to him. "A spirit dream."

He didn't show any sign that he had heard me.

"You love the girl," he stated. "I healed her. She would have died."

I didn't ask which girl he meant. There was only one girl who had needed healing recently.

"You love her. You love Rosemarie Hathaway, too. I've seen it. But you don't understand. You don't understand what she is."

"What is she?" My voice was barely more than a whisper.

"I have told you what I've seen."

"You have seen an accident."

"I have seen a murder."

He had not budged from the spot I had first seen him in, and neither had I.

"Why do you love her?"

He held his head askew like a baby bird being fed by its parents.

"Why do you love her?"

His presence seemed to swell. The same small figure stood by the wall of the doorless room, but the presence was everywhere, suffocating me, pressing me to the doorless walls, occupying all of the doorless room. "Why do you love her?"

I sat up straight in bed with the image of a head pushing over the rim of an earthy hole, rimmed by bright blue sky. A head with grey-white hair and watery blue eyes.

….

I didn't tell Ava whose hands had saved her from death in that terrible hole in the ground. He must have healed her halfway, leaving enough injury to account for her unconsciousness. I understood that he didn't want casualties in his man-hunt for Rose. But going as far as actively healing us? Saving our lives?

"Anton?" Rose jerked me back to the present. Her head poked out of a sweater she was in the process of pulling over. "Are you alright?"

All around the room, everyone was getting ready. I had been folding up Ava's and my beddings, but drifted off, blanket in hand, pondering over my spirit dream with Robert. I hadn't told anyone about it, but I had raked it for any information that could help us. I'd found none.

I met my mom's steady gaze. "Sure."

I made to continue folding the sheets, but Rose, instead of continuing about her business, dropped down beside me.

"Yesterday must have been really intense for you. Are you okay… with… everything?"

"I am," I said with a small smile. "To be honest, it's a relief not to have to lie and hide anymore. And it's…" I felt heat rushing into my face. It was and would always be awkward to confess love to a girl almost your age, even if she was your mother. "It's nice to have you, you know… as my mom."

Folding long legs beneath him, Dimitri joined us on the floor; he settled beside Rose as if they were two parts of a jigsaw puzzle fitted together. The remnants of yesterday's dopey smile were still ghosting over his face as he secured his arm around Rose's waist.

"And dad," I added.

"Ready for a nice family outing?" my dad said lightly. Rose gaped at him.

"Comrade!" she gasped. "I've been trying to bring out your funny bone for ages – and it's after discovering that you've been flaunting your adamant refusal to have a child in front of your son that it shows up?"

His smile was replaced by an expression of faint horror. "I didn't want… He doesn't believe… I do want children, Anton, more than-"

Uh-oh. " _That_ ," I quickly interjected, "is a discussion I really do not want to have with my parents. Ever. _Please_ keep the details of how you planned parenthood to yourselves." I stumbled over the decision of calling him dad or Dimitri, but then just continued: "And I believe you – I mean, that you…er… wanted me."

It was their turn to blush, which they did, unabashedly.

"Back to the family outing," I said loudly, in an attempt to stop a certain subject from running wild with my dear parents' imagination.

"Worrying?" Rose had read my tone right.

"Well, I can't help thinking that our so called plan is a little… crude."

Rose shrugged, but her reply was forestalled by Lissa's rushed and breathless exit from the bathroom.

"I need to talk to Christian," she informed us decisively.

Christian, who had been folding his and Lissa's things into their backpack, stopped at her approach. "I'm right here," he said, puzzled.

"No," she said. "Alone."

Predictably, Dimitri started arguing that Lissa shouldn't go anywhere without a guardian, but the queen was unrelenting and got her will eventually. The result was Dimitri and Rose hovering by the door nervously, taking turns to peek out into the sunlit parking lot where the two Moroi were taking a little walk.

I tried to ignore their mother-henning – after all, Lissa was plenty save with Christian – and instead set to reducing the state of disarray we seemed to always leave in our wake. The room almost looked habitable again by the time Lissa and Christian returned from their private time, arms slung around each other.

"You look funny," Rose remarked, eyeing them suspiciously. "Are you up to something?"

Christian grinned. "No, Rose, our plotting capacities are currently fully occupied with our plans to stop an evil spirit user."

"You have that goofy grin," Rose said with narrowed eyes. "It makes me suspicious." He did, indeed.

"No reason to be suspicious, Rose," Lissa said, while the equally goofy grin on her face belied her words.

"Say, Ava," Christian turned to her suddenly. "You wouldn't happen to have any older siblings?"

Ava sputtered. "What? Why? I mean, I'm not telling you anything!"

"Okay," Lissa said. "We're going to have to find out for ourselves, then."

"Though naming will be a problem," Christian added. "Do we call it Ava or not?" They shared a very suspicious soppy and goofy-grinned look.

"What are you talking about?" Rose exclaimed. She was allergic to being left out of the hoop.

The grins intensified.

"Well, we don't know who it is yet," Christian began.

"But there's definitely the first one of our babies on the way," Lissa finished.

Then they both blinked in satisfaction and turned to Rose expectantly. I could have sworn that Christian was doing his best to commit the look on Rose's face to long-term memory, to be preserved for future teasing.

"Wait, you're…" This sudden turn had caught Rose off guard. Lissa and Christian just continued to grin at her. The same grin, I noticed, was plastered on Ava's face. "You're pregnant?" Rose finally managed to sputter.

Impossibly wide, Cheshire cat grinning answered her. Rose broke out into a ball of shrieks and exclamations, and, hair flying, rushed to her best friend to hug her. While the two girls engaged in wild and high-pitched celebrating and Dimitri gave a half-stunned Christian a brotherly pat on the back, Ava and I shared a brief glance, communicating our own, though quieter, joy at the beginning or her sister's life.

An hour later, fingering the bracelet-spoon, I fervently hoped that we hadn't already depleted our share of good news for one day. The charmed silver seemed to grow heavier, clinging to my wrist, now that the time had come that I needed to take it off. My fingers felt around the now familiar bend of the silver. Tip and end didn't touch. It would be easy to wriggle out of it.

"Nothing we've tried so far has worked." Ava said calmly. Her steady gaze held a profound seriousness. "This plan is crude, but maybe simple and straightforward is what Robert expects least. Maybe this is why we could never outsmart him – we thought too similarly. Maybe it's the flaws in the plan that will make him not suspect it."

"Maybe. Or maybe it's just a really bad plan."

"Well… we're about to find out."

She was right. There was no point in tarrying. Rose and Dimitri were in position, invisible behind shelters of roughly assembled arrays of branches and shrubs, one on either side of the empty field on which Ava, Christian and I were standing. Lissa had made Rose and Dimitri charmed pendants that hid their aura and hopefully any other kind if signal that would alert a spirit user to their presence.

Lissa herself was safely stowed away in the car, waiting for us a few streets away. We could risk neither her own royal life or her baby's, nor her healing abilities – which we might be in dire need of later – by having her here in the immediate line of danger.

I took a deep breath. "Are you ready?"

Ava and Christian's curt affirmations were the starting signal.

I wriggled my hand out of the charmed silver spoon. Dropping the twisted metal to the ground, I shed all the protection I had had against Robert's ubiquitous magical sight. There was nothing between us now; he could locate me again, and I could no longer hide.

The setting sun produced a glint on the shiny silver surface. It looked out of place, a gem on the dirty hard-packed earth. I dropped my arms back to my sides. They brushed Ava's arm, and she snaked her fingers into my hand. Her shoulder touched mine, hers a little below my own. On my other side, Christian stood silent and watchful. With our backs to each other, we kept the whole area in view. If Robert would come, there was no way to sneak up on us. We would see him coming. And even if he would not pass directly by Rose and Dimitri's hiding places, he would have to pass close enough, close enough for one of them to surprise him. They both held heavy branches, clubs, which we had carefully picked so they had smooth surfaces, so they wouldn't seriously hurt him. We wanted to knock him out. We wanted nothing more than to incapacitate him, so that he wouldn't do any more damage. So he wouldn't kill anyone.

It must be the crudest plan in the history of plans. Lure him into a sense of safety and of having the upper hand, and then give him a good pasting, knock him out cold for long enough to move him somewhere he would never escape again. He would have to take medication. He would be as mentally stable as could be, and as a side effect, he would no longer have access to his magic.

"How long do you think it will take him to arrive?" I asked nervously. I knew that neither Christian nor Ava had any better way of telling than I had, but I needed to talk. I couldn't stand to wait in silence.

"Let's hope he shows up before night has fallen completely," said Christian. "I wouldn't want to face Strigoi on top of Robert."

"You know, when this is over," Ava suddenly blurted, "and we have achieved what we meant to, it's possible that we'll just disappear as soon as the need to travel back in time disappears. Okay, it's just as likely that we'll be stranded here since our return ticket is no longer valid, but you never know how time travel turns out, so… well, I just want you to know that… I really want you to live."

I was wondering whether her other hand, the one not intertwined with mine, was holding Christian's. It would explain his lack of a verbal answer. I hoped he was giving her the same reassuring sense of calm she was giving me.

I suddenly wished I had said something equally as deeply meaningful to my parents. I hadn't, and now it was too late.

Christian and Ava didn't talk anymore, and I was sure now they were communicating via handholding. I still couldn't bear to stand in silence, so I found myself desperately bursting out the first thing that came to mind.

"Are you and Lissa going to marry soon?" Way to go, Anton, I told myself. So considerate.

But Christian surprised me by answering with an exasperated snort. "I've been wanting to propose for ages!" Then he grew serious once more. "Now, knowing what could happen – I want it more than ever. Only, I don't want it to go to waste."

"What do you mean?" Ava asked. It suddenly occurred to me that everything said in this moment of being suspended from the world, of waiting, had some kind of special weight attached to it.

He paused to think. "If our marriage is going to be a short one, I want to make what little memories we manage to create count. I want her to remember the day we seal our lives together. I don't want it to be rushed and hurried, in between a council and a conference. It's why I've been so desperate for this weekend trip with her. I need to make it memorable."

"I think she would remember it no matter the way you do it," I said quietly, unsure of whether it was my place to say anything.

Ava, unexpectedly, gave a little snigger. "And why does Dimitri want you to propose so badly?"

Completely unoffended, Christian returned the chortle. "He proposed to Rose a while ago, and she accepted, but she's not actually that keen on the idea of marriage itself. She keeps coming up with excuses, and waiting until Lissa and I get married so that they don't steal our show is one of them. I don't know why Dimitri puts his hope into our wedding to prod Rose, though. She'll keep putting it off for as long as she wants to. She's Rose, after all."

I couldn't see them, but I knew they were both smiling indulgently. Poor Dad.

With my thoughts revolving around imagining both my and Ava's parents' weddings, I barely noticed the time passing, nor that it passed in silence. They would both be stunning bridal couples. Ava's mom was beautiful, and so was mine, and in this time, they both radiated love the way I'd only ever seen Adrian and Sydney radiate, and with the general soppiness of weddings in general and those weddings in particular, these events would be unforgettable no matter the proposal. I almost wished I could be there for it.

I imagined their dresses – surely Rose would go for something stunning that would not hinder her movements at all, should she be compelled to spontaneously battle a handful of Strigoi in front of the altar. Then I remembered that if the wedding took place in a church, there would be no Strigoi because of the holy ground thing, but then I wondered whether Rose would want to get married in a church at all.

Before I could go into the matter of imagining rings, I was interrupted by a subtle sigh coming from behind me. Quickly, I shed the image of Rose in a long white dress and veil, and firmly vowed myself never to tell anybody that these pictures had sneaked into my imagination.

"He's taking his sweet time," Ava grumbled.

"How long has it been?" I asked.

"Almost two hours," Christian replied. Nightfall had long since enveloped us into velvety darknesss.

"Could he be… out of range?"

"Are you comparing yourself to a cell phone?" Ava asked wryly.

"Well, he is taking a long time."

"Maybe he was still looking for us where he lost us. It'll take him a while to get here."

"Maybe. We should probably have accounted for the possibility of that. We can't stand here forever."

"The plan was to stand here until Robert comes. If it takes forever, so it will be," Ava told me firmly.

I sighed, and resigned myself to a few more hours of boredom.

It was after one more hour that I realized that the tediousness had taken the edge of my fear. I didn't have it in me to be nervous for so many hours at a time. The moment I realized I was forgetting the threat, I forcefully reminded myself again of what would happen if my attention slacked. I needed to be alert, at all times, even for very long hours.

We gave up on standing eventually and sat down on the dusty ground. A fourth hour passed. The boredom became more unbearable than the initial silence. I had to fight against sleepiness. My eyelids became heavy, and I stood up again to get myself back to full alertness.

Then, movement. My head snapped to my right, where I had seen motion. Within a second, my adrenaline levels spiked. The moonlight was barely enough so see by, but there was clearly something close to the spot where Rose had made her hideout space.

The next second, I realized that it was Rose herself.

She dashed out of her shelter, striding over the protruding branches of her den, and made her way to us. There was a grim look on her face.

"Rose, what are you doing?" I hissed. "You have to get back! He could be here any minute!"

"He's not going to come." She bent to pick something up from the ground, and straightened up to hold out the discarded silver spoon with the still working spell in it.

"Put it back on."

"Rose, what-"

"Lissa is not replying to my calls," she said in a hard voice. "She was supposed to send me a text message every hour. When she missed the last one, I started calling her and she's not answering. We have to go check on her."

As Rose gestured towards Dimitri's hiding spot – he was already approaching – I turned to Ava and Christian.

"How long since she last contacted you?" Christian asked. He had instantly gone as rigid as Rose.

"Once hour and twenty minutes. She should have texted twenty minutes ago." Fear and worry leaked out from under her mask of grimness. "She knows how important this is. She would never just not pick up. Something's happened."

"Let's go," Christian said tersely and, without waiting for consent, turned around to go back to where we'd left Lissa and the car. Rose followed, and the rest of us after them.

"I should have known that Robert would find our weakness," I heard Rose mutter under her breath. "He always does the one thing we least suspect. We want to keep her safe, and he goes for her. God, we were so careless."

Christian said nothing, but kept walking at a quick pace. It wasn't that long until we reached the car, where Lissa had been sitting in, waiting. Rose picked up a sheet of paper that was stuck under the windshield. Wordlessly, she held it out to us.

 _Go to sleep._

* * *

 **This chapter is a little shorter, because I noticed that this story is getting longer than I had intended (I had aimed for 70.000 words), and that is because I sometimes make people overtalk stuff. So I started trimming my chapters and taking out all the sequences that is just the characters talking your heads off. It's not rushed that way, is it?**

 **I'm looking forward to reading your reviews! Write lots of them!** **:-)**


	23. No Hope

**Okay, okay! No shorter chapters! But only if you'll keep reviewing!  
That said – this one is short, but it has always been so. This is simply because it's the type of chapter that ****_needs to end_** **because at some point, you can't take any more… Well, read, and tell me if this should have gone on…**

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"How will I ever be able to sleep now," Rose intoned, her voice dead. She was standing in front of the bed, arms hanging awkwardly at her sides, looking at it as if it were something from another world.

"You will because you have to," Dimitri said, gently. "It's the only way of finding out what Robert wants with her."

Mutely, Rose reached behind her neck. She let something small and silvery glide into Dimitri's hand. The charmed necklace that had protected her from Robert's spirit dreams so far. She had to shed this protection in order to permit Robert to intrude into her mind.

Rose lay down on the bed, taking a breath. She closed her eyes and forcibly relaxed her body. If falling asleep was what she needed to do to help her dearest friend, then sleep she would. There was nothing she wouldn't do, even something as impossible as sleep while her nerves were raging and storming.

"Everyone should sleep while we're here," Dimitri said, turning to the rest of us. "I don't know what's coming, but it won't be easy. You should all rest all long as you can. I'll wake you up when Rose does."

He was right. And if Rose was managing to sleep at a time like this, then so could I. I would be well rested and at my full strength when we did whatever we could do to save Lissa.

Behind my closed eyelids, the world was tinged red. Fitting, I thought. Then Dimitri turned off the light, and everything went black. I lay awake, waiting for sleep, willing it to come. When my eyes, though closed, grew accustomed to the darkness, what little light poured in through the curtains painted patterns on the insides of my lids. They danced and waved, even though I was not moving. It was like water, but not the blue water of the seas, but red water of the lakes of hell. Gradually, the red turned to grey. Color faded. My feed stood on concrete.

A fat white line passed by the tips of my toes. The line continued on, into the distance, and then collided with a wall, a wall that had many doors set into it. White paint made it blend into a flat white expanse, interspersed with repetitive brown squares. There was a mind-numbing regularity to it, two rows of doors in the white wall. Although a grey iron guardrail closed in the doors, both on the upper and the lower level, there was no staircase to the second floor.

"What can I do?" said a faint voice. It was Rose's voice, but with a for Rose very uncharacteristic note of pleading in it. I discovered her standing a hundred feet away from me in the middle of the parking lot, unprotected, and at the mercy of the figure towering over her. He towered over her, even though he was of roughly the same size.

It was then that I realized that this was no ordinary dream.

"Tell me what you want me to do. I'll do it. I'll come to you, and you can kill me if you want. I promise. Just keep Lissa out of it. She has nothing to do with it. It's me you hate and it's me you want to punish. So don't take it out on anyone else!"

It sounded as if she was desperately trying to keep her voice even and steady, but failed to hide her panic. At the same time, I wondered how much of this was acting. I knew Rose would fight tooth and nail until her heart ceased to beat; _you can kill me if you want_ certainly involved a lot of obstacles for anyone attempting the killing.

"There's nothing you can do." Robert's voice carried easily over the distance. His head was turned to her, his whole body threatening her, but over her head, his washed-out blue eyes were fixed on me.

"Just like there was nothing I could do for my brother. Just like I had to watch him die."

"No!" Rose exclaimed, and it sounded like a wail. "No, you can't just kill her! Please! She is innocent! She didn't even know where I was back then! She didn't even know it ever happened!"

"It doesn't matter. It is not her suffering I want. It is yours." Still, those eerie cold eyes hung on me. I made my feet move, over the white lines of the abandoned parking lot that no longer existed in real life, towards where Robert was torturing my mom with the promise of death.

"Tell me what you want from me," Rose pleaded, again.

"Your pain."

"Then take it! Torture me all you want! Me! Not her!"

The cold eyes broke their gaze, slowly turned on her. "I already am."

Then he turned around, as if he wanted to walk away from the dream he had created. In turning, his head whipped up to me. His cold blue gaze pierced me like a sword. Rose saw his gaze – she followed his eyes, turning around to me, and just as she put eyes on me and realized I had witnessed the scene, the dream dissolved.

I sat up, gasping, as if waking up from drowning and not from a dream. The motel room swam before my eyes, walls a light blue matching the bedspreads, a rickety table shoved against the wall to make room for Christian who had refused the bed this time but in fact wasn't sleeping at all. In her bed, Rose was sitting up like me, looking stony and cold. Dimitri sat down with her, gently trying to wake her up from the nightmare that had followed her out of the dream.

"Anton?" Ava hadn't been sleeping, either. She reached for my arm. "Were you there with her?"

I nodded, not trusting my voice.

"Then I take it it didn't go all too well," she said quietly.

"He…" I couldn't bring myself to repeat the cruelties Robert had said. He wanted to kill Ava's mother just for the sake of it. Just to torture Rose, who was powerless to do anything but wait for Robert to taunt her in sleep again.

I hugged Ava to me. She was in a thin T-shirt, and I could feel her shoulder blades as I pressed her close, with almost a bad conscience because here she was, comforting me, even though right now it was her mom in the clutches of our supervillain.

"I've been thinking," she whispered. Her head was on my shoulder, and her hair tickled the side of my face. I relaxed my grip on her, but she didn't let go.

"The set-up – I can imagine everything happening the way it originally happened in our timeline. Lissa captured – Rose and Christian would do anything to get her back. They could both get into the line of Robert's wrath. And it fits in with Lissa's dream, about what she said about not being able to come to their help. Robert would have constrained her somehow, so she can't move. She can't move to help them."

"So this is how they die," I whispered tonelessly. All this time – all our efforts – it had all been for nothing. "And this time," I realized, "We will die with them."

Everything we had done had served only to make it worse. Our parents would still die. They would still leave their loved ones shattered and lost. But this time, my dad wouldn't have me to keep him going. Lissa wouldn't have two daughters, but only one.

We had already been born in our timeline when two of our parents died. But with all our meddling, we had done nothing more than sped up the process. Instead of taking a few more years for his deadly attack, Robert was doing it now. Which meant that Rose and Christian would take us with them into death – into nonexistence. Lily would survive – if Lissa did. Lissa would at least have one child to keep her going. Dimitri would have nothing. My dad would not survive this, either.

I felt my heart turn to ice in my chest. My arms around Ava hardened. As I hid my face in her shoulder in defeat, there was only one thought that was something of a consolation to me: at least I would never see Ava die. The two of us would just disappear. We'd be together until the end.

"No," Ava said. "No."

"Ava…" I could barely talk.

"We are from the future. We have to have knowledge that is of use in this. Anton, think! If the set-up is exactly the way it would have been in our time… then we know at least one thing…"

Slowly, I raised my head from her shoulder. Across the room, Rose was in Dimitri's arms. Christian sat at the window, looking out into the blackness of the night. His face was mirrored in the glass. It was devoid of emotion, a grim and empty mask.

We know at least one thing. The picture came into my head unbidden, Rose and Christian on the ground, Lissa screaming in her bounds. I shook the image away. Another came, a weathered wooden cross, bearing the names of Rosemarie Hathaway and Christian Ozera… it was not on their graves…

"The place," I whispered, realization dawning with the intensity of a lightning bolt. "We know the place!"

"We might," Ava cautioned. "He might have changed it. But everything points to it – we're in the vicinity. And it sounds like this had been his plan in our timeline as well… hurting Lissa to get to Rose, without giving her the chance to do anything to stop it, am I right?"

I could only nod. We were still holding each other, so she would feel my assent rather than see it. Then she drew away, leaving my whole body craving for her warmth.

"Selinsgrove," we said together. The name rang of the long-ago horror that had always been part of the present for Ava and me.

Rose, Christian and Dimitri all looked up in dazed amazement when Ava and I suddenly leaped up as though our bed had been strewn with needles.

"Look, we think we know something," Ava opened without circumstances. Rose disengaged from Dimitri, and I could see hope glimmering in Christian's eyes as he turned his blind stare from the night.

We were from the future. They'd put faith into every scrap of information we could come up with.

"It's a chance," Ava continued. "But we might know where Robert is keeping her. It's a place we know he used for something similar in our past."

Rose was already on her feet. "Where?" was all she asked. No _How do you know?_ No _What did he do in this place?_ Rose trusted us, unquestioningly. They all were, now that they knew who we were.

I fervently hoped I would prove worthy of her faith in me.

"Selinsgrove," I said. It's in Pennsylvania. Fairly close to Court, actually."

So close, in fact, that Ava and I had managed to go there without our remaining parents' consent and knowledge, visiting the all but forgotten memorial site for our parents who had fallen while defending their queen and friend and wife.

"What are we waiting for, then?" Rose said. The concentrated tension of impending battle took over her body and erased all traces of sleep and defeat. Having gone to bed fully clothed, she was ready on the spot. "Let's go, there'll be time for strategizing once we're in the car!"

Christian was already almost out of the door. I met Dimitri's eyes for the briefest moment. I had to turn away, afraid that he would see what I was hiding from him.

Rose didn't even bother gathering her things, and joined Christian by the door, waiting impatiently. Ava shrugged into a sweater, and took the time to tie her shoes, and I – I froze.

"We're going to have to hand in the keys," I said, blankly. Everything was happening so fast. I had to buy some time.

Things were happening the way they had. Our actions so far hadn't had the power to change that. What made me believe that they could now? Rose and Christian would die. Ava and I would die.

"Never mind the stupid keys," Rose exclaimed, impatiently. "Come on, Anton, hurry up!"

I shook my head, to clear it as much as to disagree. "No, we have to drop the keys. Ava…?"

"I'll do it," she said. Her eyes were asking a silent question. _What are you up to?_

I tried to make my eyes give a silent answer. _Don't worry. It'll be alright._

It was the first lie I ever told her.

Ava picked up the keys and left, trusting my false assurance. Christian mumbled something and followed her, unable to keep still – as I had thought he would. I was alone with Rose and Dimitri. My parents.

When I realized that Dimitri was still sitting on the bed – had not moved, in all this sudden conundrum – I also realized that he knew. He knew what was going to happen.

Rose glinted at me angrily. I was keeping her from rushing to Lissa's aid, and I knew it. "You're stalling, Anton. And you had better have a damn good reason, or-"

"I have," I cut her off. "I'm so sorry. I have."

Her eyes turned softer. In her own panic, she probably hadn't thought about anything else than saving Lissa. Now that she was giving me a closer look, she must have noticed the despair on my face, try as I might not to show it.

"Anton," she said quietly. Her haste suddenly fell off her like a shrugged-off coat. "What is it?" She came over to me, and touched her hand on my arm, ever so lightly, but it rendered me capable of coherent speech once more.

I forced myself to meet her gaze. "The reason Ava and I know about this place," I said, studiously calm. "Is because… it is a memorial place. And it is… it is for-"

"For Rose," Dimitri said, calmly. He looked at the two of us, his family. "It's for Rose. Robert is going to kill her. She dies." He said it evenly, as if recounting a shopping list.

"Not only Rose." Blood was rushing in my ears like the sound of my heart breaking. I couldn't believe I was doing this. But I had to save what I could. Even if it meant the total destruction of my own family. "Christian dies, too."

They took this in in silence. For what could there be said for it?

Part of myself screamed to stop. Stop, before it's too late.

But it was already too late.

"Lissa isn't pregnant with Ava yet." I made my mouth form words that would lead to a suggestion I'd never thought I would make. "If Christian dies now, Ava will never be conceived."

"Ava will die with him," Dimitri said tonelessly. "And you will die with Rose."

"Yes," I whispered. "But we can save one of us." I knew I didn't need to tell my parents which one of us I meant. There wasn't even the slightest hint of a doubt as to which one of us I needed to save. Ava had to live. I couldn't stand it – the thought that there might be a world without Ava. Even if it was a world without me in it… it wasn't the world it if was without Ava.

"We have to leave them behind, Ava and Christian," Rose said. Like Dimitri, she was talking in a voice that sounded as if emotion had been cut off from it, as if all feeling had been hidden away in a secluded corner of her mind, not to interfere. "I have to give myself up. He has to kill me, so he has no more reason to hurt Lissa and Christian and Ava. Once I'm dead – everything stops."

I blinked, hard. I could not cry, not now. I had to be strong for her. For all of them.

"I'll go," Rose said. Crack – the emotional barrier had gone. Determination was back in her voice. Purpose. She had a way to save it now. Save everything. Everything but herself.

"You won't be along in death, either, Rose," Dimitri reminded her. His words were quiet and gentle, as if he had already accepted the invariable destruction of everything he held dear. After just realizing he had the chance to build a family, he had to let it all go.

"I know," I said. "But it will be better than it was."

Rose was still. She was still standing in front of me, helpless in the middle of the room, torn between death and death. She closed her eyes for a moment.

"Anton," she whispered. "You're asking me to kill you so that Ava can live."

"Yes."

"I can't-"

I smiled, and even though it seemed impossible right now, it was sincere.

"You can," I said. "Believe me. Look, I know the future. I have grown up in a world with two broken families. If we can safe one – make one family whole again – then all of this will have been worth it. If I can make Ava's family happy and intact, then I will readily give my life for that. It will mean erasing unhappiness, and that's why we have come."

"You will give more than your life," Dimitri said. His voice still had that suspended, quiet tone that let me know that he had gotten a glimpse of the future himself. "You will give up your entire existence. You will never have been born."

"But that's better, isn't it?" I replied. "If I don't die, I won't be mourned. Ava won't even know I existed. She won't miss me. It's the missing that makes dying hard, not the dying itself."

Rose gave a small sniff, and I realized she was smiling through tears. A sad smile, but a smile nonetheless.

"I wish I had gotten to know you better," she choked, trying hard to talk though she almost didn't manage. "I don't know where you have all that wisdom from. I know I'm not really your mom yet… but I'm-" Her voice broke, and she continued in a whisper. "I'm already proud of you."

Then she embraced me, tenderly and fiercely at the same time. This was goodbye. This was the first stage of a long and hard good-bye.

"We have to go," she said, suppressing sobs, holding me tight. "We have to go, before they come back."

Only then did Dimitri get up, and Rose froze against me.

"No," she said. "Dimitri, please… at least you…"

I felt his hand on my back, and there we stood, all three of us in an embrace, the first and only we were likely to share. Dimitri raised a hand to Rose's face, and gently brushed a tear away from her cheek.

"I'm going to lose everything anyway," he said, but there was no bitterness in his voice. "I am not going to lose any more with my own life."

Their eyes locked, and I could see Rose's refusal. Allowing Dimitri to walk straight into death was probably something she was hard-wired against. But I knew what he would walk into, should he survive.

"Let him come," I said simply. There was no way I would condemn my dad to live like that, with both of us gone.

Rose blinked out a last tear, but she nodded. "Then we have to go," she said, "before Ava and Christian come back."

I found myself wishing I could hold on to her, hold on to something, because I was about to let the one thing go that had grounded me so far, for all my life. Without Ava, what little remained of my life would be a lot colder.

We left the room in silence, leaving the door open for Ava and Christian. They would need somewhere to stay after we'd left them behind. They would try to follow us, of course, but hopefully, it would take them long enough to find another means of getting there that Robert would already be gone when they arrived. I tried not to think about what they would find when they arrived.

We crossed the dark parking lot to find our car, got in, and the sound of Dimitri starting the ignition had a final ring to it. Mutely, he maneuvered the car out of the parking space, and turned it towards the exit in a slow roll.

We passed the lobby building, and had almost reached the street. It was exactly the moment we passed the front doors that Ava and Christian exiting the building through them. They saw us instantly. I could see Ava's eyes widen, her silent cry forming, saw her taking a few steps after us, but we had pulled into the street and were picking up speed, and Ava's face disappeared in the darkness behind us, leaving the air suddenly several degrees colder.

* * *

 **Oh my.. personally, I'm glad to have this chapter over with.**

 **It's another really soppy chapter … was it too much this time? Also, I have no idea whether Rose is in character in this... Having to meekly lay down her life is just not something that goes with her character at all, but in a situation where it's the one course of action that leads to a halfway acceptable outcome...?  
**

 **I really hope you're going to tell me your thoughts on the chapter! Looking forwards to your reviews!**


	24. Cracked

I was craving Ava's presence and at the same time glad she wasn't here. I had to cope without her now. I had probably just gotten my last glimpse ever of my very best friend. Rose would die, and I would die, and Ava would forget that I had ever existed.

Because I would never have existed.

I had never really thought much about my own death. I had thought about death, all right – as a fifteen-year-old guardian novice – actually, I think I had turned sixteen somewhere over the last few weeks – as a teenage guardian novice, you couldn't not. Dying had been a part of my life for as long as I could remember. Guardian friends of my dad's had died in the line of duty. My mom had died in the line of duty, and her absence had pervaded my childhood home like another silent roommate. So, death had been a steady companion for me ever since my childhood. And still, it had never been my own death that I had imagined. Death was something that happened, but to other people, not to me. Maybe when I would have become a real guardian, started fighting Strigoi in order to save my Moroi, maybe then I would have wasted some thought on the day it would be my turn. Maybe then I would have hoped that when the moment came and I knew I had to die, I would be able to go to my fate with my head held high.

But I had fought Strigoi, I suddenly thought. After everything that had gone down with my young parents during the last few weeks, I had faced the prospect of death often enough. Only there never had been time to indulge in the idea.

Now, there was. The car ride to where we would meet with destiny offered ample opportunities to contemplate my death. And I found that I couldn't really grip the concept. I knew the concept of pain, of screaming yourself into unconsciousness, maybe to stay there forever. Pain was familiar. I had met it often enough.

But what I was facing wasn't really the destruction of my body through pain and injury. I would probably be afraid if it was that, because I wasn't looking forward to pain. But never having existed? I didn't know how that would feel.

So I felt oddly composed, if only because what I was about to experience was so far beyond what I could imagine. I was almost glad for it. I wouldn't have wanted to go out shaking with fear.

About half an hour into the drive, Rose opened her seatbelt buckle, and wriggled herself through the gap between the front seats. Wordlessly, she settled down next to me. Her arm went around me as if it was the most natural thing in the world, and I leaned against her, glad that Ava's place was at least not left so painfully empty anymore.

I needed another few minutes to work up the question. "Are you scared?"

She answered without a moment's consideration. "Not really," she said.

"But you'll probably die."

"I know." She turned her face towards me, her eyes silvery glints in the darkness. "I've died a few times too many already, I'm afraid. There's never been anything to be scared of. You're worried about everyone else, what's going to happen to them, but, well, when you take over the dying part, there's actually a lot less to worry about other people… And every time it happened, I was really too busy to think about it… so it just happened before I was aware of it. "

After a pause, she said: "No, I'm not scared. I'm more sad because of everything that I'll miss. But that doesn't mean it's not perfectly legitimate to be scared."

"I can't be, either," I replied. "I won't die. Well, not unless I do something stupid. And I lack the imagination for picturing not existing."

"You're pretty accepting of this," Rose said, sounding slightly displeased. Her arm around me tightened. "Anton, don't for a moment think that we've given up on you. I'm ready to do what's necessary, but that doesn't mean that I won't keep fighting till the very end. I haven't lost hope that we could all still survive this. And don't think that I'm going to Robert because your death is easier to face than Lissa's." Her voice turned to a whisper. "It's not."

I wanted to say that I understood, but no words came out.

She leaned her head against mine. Her hair was soft where it brushed against my forehead. I knew that where our hair mingled, it would be exactly the same color. Dark brown, almost black. I felt a tension seep out of me that I hadn't even realized was there. My body slumped against hers, muscles relaxing, my head coming to rest on her shoulder, tucked away underneath hers.

In front of us, Dimitri's shoulders hunched. He should be here with us, I thought. It seemed like we could never all be together.

Being here, sheltered for once in the arms of my mom, knowing that she would give her life for me, too, if that wouldn't be so totally counterproductive, knowing that her heart broke for me, too – that was when I truly felt that Ava and I did have accomplished something. Because when Rose died, and me with her, and Dimitri too because he would surely not stop fighting for both of us until he no longer could – all that heartbreak would be erased. There would be no bereaved husband grieving for his wife. No widower with nothing else to go to but a son who could only ever remind him of what he'd lost. Ava would be happy. She, and Lissa, and Christian, and Lily, too – they would all be happy. They would be happy, and together, and they would have everything that I could ever wish for them to have. Ava wouldn't miss me because she'd never know me, and Lissa and Christian would keep the memory of my mother and father alive. But it would be a memory that wouldn't crush them. They would remember their departed friends with grief and even guilt, but their memory would always remind them of love could do and what living was worth. They would always be sad for them, but it would allow them to live.

Really, could I ever have hoped for more? Wasn't this everything I could have wished for, from our trip to the past?

I should be happy. I was. I would be.

Then again, I wouldn't, because I would no longer exist.

I barely noticed when Dimitri stopped the car. I had been lulled into a sense of infinite calm, nestled in the arms of my mom, with the thought that dying was okay if it came like this.

There was still silence, interrupted only by the rustling of Dimitri turning around to watch his son and would-be wife huddled in the backseat behind him. He seemed to be content just watching us, and for a moment we didn't move, none of us.

"Were you ever happy, Anton?" Dimitri asked into the velvet silence. His brown eyes were deep, but there was no accusation there.

"I always was," I told him quietly. "I was. That's not why I came here. I came for you."

"I'm glad you two didn't ditch me, as well, you know," he said. "I wouldn't miss one second of… having a son."

I smiled. "If it wasn't so terribly soppy and if I wasn't a teenage boy who would never say a thing like this, I would now tell you that I love you. A lot. Both of you."

"You're doing being a teenager right," Rose said, a tiny laugh in her voice.

"I've heard it includes doing things that make your parents very uncomfortable," I said.

"So it would seem," Rose agreed.

"That means I'm going to have to get out of this car and get all of us killed, then."

I sat up straight and opened the door, but when I got out I realized that I must have forgotten a piece of me inside. Rose lingered for a moment, and when she got out, she kept her face away from me. Then she did look, and I almost wished she hadn't, because this was a look that I wouldn't forget for the rest of the very short remainder of my life.

.

* * *

 **.**

 **\- LILY -**

"Lily. Again." Did I detect a slight note of exasperation in Dimitri's welcome? "Um…what a… nice surprise!"

If I didn't manage to do my compulsion sessions a little more inconspicuously and a lot more successfully, it would be my peculiarly frequent visits to Dimitri alone that would make him suspicious.

"Yes… again. Hi Dimitri."

He looked at me wryly. Then he gestured me inside, glancing at me over his shoulder as he led the way to his living room.

"Much though I appreciate your concern for me, Lily, I'm beginning to have some moderate amount of concern for you, too. You're looking more worn out every time we meet."

Worn out? Well, thank you very much. I had spent a lot of time this morning hiding the dark bags under my eyes with a thick layer of make-up.

"Oh, just college… I'm starting to worry after all…"

His gaze seemed annoyingly perceptive to me.

"Would you like some hot chocolate?"

"That would be nice." Hopefully, it would also calm my frayed nerves. I couldn't bail on Dimitri again. Two days had passed since I had last compelled him, and he needed a touch-up or the truth would surface sooner or later. Sooner rather than later, I suspected.

Dimitri went to his small apartment kitchen to prepare some of his special, Dimitri-patented hot chocolate, and I looked around the living room. It had been a while since last I'd been here. Ava was a frequent guest, what with her and Anton being virtually inseparable even through the holidays, and my mom came over on a social call every now and then, but I almost never went with either of them. Not with Ava, because I'd just be a third wheel, and not with Mom, because I was afraid they'd just be dwelling on the past, and I didn't want to be caught up in that. For my compulsions, I had always tried to catch Dimitri somewhere outside, so as to arouse less suspicion. Now, though, the time had come to revert to more desperate measures.

Since the last time I'd been here, Anton gone from kid to more or less young adult. There were no comic books lying around on the faded red sofa anymore, and he no longer left soda cans or sweet wrappers all over the cluttered but comfy living room. His childhood drawings were long gone, belatedly removed with a view to his sense of embarrassment after Dimitri had insisted on leaving them on the walls for many more years than a merciful parent should display the early disgraces of wax pen and crayon art. The bookshelves still held more paperbacks than a single person could possibly read in a lifetime, and the curtains' soft yellow still brightened up the room as if replacing the nightly invisible sun. On one wall, an ever growing display of framed pictures chronicled the family life.

"There you go." Dimitri was back, offering me a steaming mug that had a flowery pattern all over it. I accepted it, warming my hands on it despite the summer temperatures.

"Why don't you sit down, Lily?"

"You're sounding like a therapist, Dimitri. Are you going to ask me whether I'm taking my tablets?"

I had intended to make fun, but as soon as the words had left my mouth, I wanted to take them back. Too much of the worries I was trying not to betray lay within them. It was I who thought that maybe I should be taking some pills, not Dimitri.

I sat down anyway, and sipped at my hot chocolate. It was Dimitri's trademark comfort food – there had been hot chocolate whenever Ava and I had visited him when we were kids.

"Lily, I don't mean to pry," Dimitri began in a warm but serious tone. My stomach suddenly felt icy despite the hot beverage. "I don't know much about what you're up to these days, and maybe it isn't my place to say anything, but I get the distinct feeling that something is troubling you."

Mom never noticed, was the first thing that went through my head.

I looked away, unwilling to let my eyes tell the truth. "Well, I told you, I think going to college is more stressful than I'd imagined," I mumbled incoherently.

I looked up just in time to see the remnant of a smile that had crossed his face. "Lily, I do still know you to some extent. Forgive me for saying that I find it a little implausible for someone as independent and headstrong as you to be frightened by the prospect of meeting new people and learning new things. I don't think that's what's bothering you."

For the briefest moment, I was reminded that with all that was going on, I had pretty much forgotten everything about college recently, and that the picture he was painting looked like a perfect place to get away from it all.

"Well, I, you know, it's maybe, um…" I stopped myself when I realized that I was unable to form a coherent sentence.

"If it's not something you want to talk to me about," Dimitri continued, still with that warm note, "I understand that. I know I'm not the first person you'd choose to put your confidence in. All the same – Lily, I want you to know that you can come over here whenever you want. You'll always be welcome."

"That's… Thank you, Dimitri," I managed to stammer, temporarily distracted by an overwhelming sense of betrayal because the reason I came to see him was to deceive him about the whereabouts of his only son.

He gave me a moment to compose myself, sipping from his own cup.

"So, did you have something particular in mind when you came here, or is it a purely social visit?"

I prepared to lock eyes with him, summoned the silvery tendrils of spirit that I had always been able to summon so easily from within the depths of my soul.

"Social visit," I said, stalling. The magic wafted within me, waiting to be utilized, wanting to be released. With its release, it could take a piece of me with it, a piece of my sanity. It really wanted that, too.

Dimitri met my eyes readily, not suspecting what the gaze could cost him. I was where I needed to be, eye contact, spirit at the ready. I had just to give the go…

I stood up from the sofa, so abruptly I almost spilled my chocolate.

"It's been ages since I've been here last," I said, doing my best to keep my voice steady.

"We really should make more of an effort to visit each other more frequently, shouldn't we?" Dimitri asked wistfully. There had been a time, when I'd been very little, that Dimitri and Anton had practically been part of the family. But for Dimitri and my mom, what had brought and kept them together had been two people who were no longer with us, and our two families had gradually grown apart. Only Ava and Anton's friendship endured, but then those two had been joined at the hip as toddlers.

"Well, I'm visiting right now, aren't I?" I answered. My mind still had trouble forming sentences, so I wandered off to the wall full of framed pictures. There were photographs of Anton throughout his childhood, an assortment of pictures documenting his growth from toddler to handsome teenage boy. He was sixteen now – his birthday had passed by uncelebrated in his prolonged absence. It had been the worst thing I had done yet, to make Dimitri forget his own son's sixteenth birthday.

Ava featured prominently in this documentation of family history. I could see her blonde head looking down at me from several of the photos, almost always sticking her head together with Anton, plotting mischief. In almost all of these pictured, they either smiled very widely, or had expressions of intense concentration on their faces. The latter were probably the moments they had plotted one of their more nefarious pranks. Such as replacing my nail polish with a sticky pink substance whose origin continued to faze me to the present day, but which had refused both to dry and to leave my nails, and had got stuck all over my hair and clothes as well.

I found myself seeking out the few pictures of famous Rosemarie Hathaway that were sparsely mixed into the blend of family life. The assortment made the impression that Dimitri hadn't wanted to leave Anton's mom out, maybe considering it a slight to her memory not to include her into the family portrait, but he hadn't wanted pictures of his late wife to assault the eye, either. There was one where Rose was sitting on a sofa, in the old apartment Dimitri and Anton had had to leave because guardians were assigned apartments strictly accommodating their family number. Anton was a baby in this picture, a few months old, and Rose looked immeasurably proud to hold him in her arms. In another, Anton was two, maybe three, inexplicably standing on a table that was laid out for a festive meal. He toed a casserole curiously, clearly unbeknownst to his parents, who were standing behind him, busy making sure their son didn't fall off the table while gazing lovingly into each other's eyes.

"This was taken a few weeks before she died."

I turned around to Dimitri. He, unlike my mom, had always been able to use these words that others tended to skirt, uncomfortable to say the ugly truth: they died. They're dead. No euphemisms for Dimitri.

"I know," I said, simply.

There were no pictures of my dad in our apartment. Not him, and not Rose either. My mom couldn't look at them.

I turned back to the picture, studying Rose's smile and the natural way she leaned towards her husband, over the head of her son.

Actually, they had to lean back to see each other behind the back of their son. Because Anton was almost Rose's height in this picture, with her putting a hand to his shoulder that already began to surpass the height of hers. He must have been about fourteen when the picture was taken.

Rose had been long dead when Anton was fourteen years old.

My mug hit the floor before I realized it had slipped my grasp. I jumped back from the picture with a pathetic little whimpering noise that I barely registered, collided with the coffee table and would have fallen right into the puddle of brown liquid soaking the carpet around the broken remains of my cup, if Dimitri hadn't put a steadying hand on my shoulder, keeping me upright.

"Lily?" There was a definite tinge of worry in his voice. "Lily, what's wrong? Are you alright?"

I nodded just in time to prevent him from serious worries. I raised my hand to take his away from my shoulder, and realized how much it was shaking. I could barely find the motoric precision to remove his hand, and I couldn't talk either, so I rather ungently ripped myself away from him, stalked over the remains of my spilled chocolate and faced the photo again, because if I didn't look at it now, I would be eternally scared of this picture.

The picture showed Anton at three years old, sticking his toe into a casserole.

I searched the other pictures, frantically tried to remember all the ones Rose was in, but there were so many she wasn't in, and what if she suddenly showed up in a picture she'd never been in before…

Oh god, Rose couldn't be on those pictures. She couldn't be, or it would be one more sign that I was going mad.

"Lily," Dimitri was still right behind me, puzzled.

"I thought I saw something," I said, to make myself believe it. "It wasn't there, I imagined it." My voice was unsteady, and I wasn't even sure Dimitri could understand what I was saying. I wasn't sure at what point I had started crying, but I was crying now, and it was making it very hard to appear nicely calm and in control.

It wasn't possible, I told myself. I hadn't seen a picture of Rose next to her fifteen-year-old son, I hadn't seen it, because it could not exist. It did not exit, I told myself while my eyes raked the endless display of family life, because it cannot exist, and I haven't seen it, because seeing it means going crazy.

Well, I was going crazy for sure, then.

I finally allowed Dimitri to pull me towards him. I imagine this was what Rose must have felt like, face buried in his chest. It was all I could reach, because Dimitri was so tall, and Rose hadn't been any taller than me. But Dimitri was steadfast, unwavering as a rock, and he stroked my hair as I disappeared into him, holding on to him as the last bastion of sanity. Every now and then, he would say something, and what reached my ears through my own sobbing and the muffling of his chest sounded like "Don't worry," and "I've got you."

He made me walk back to the palace with him, eventually. I was able get a grip on my sobbing after a while, but I wouldn't tell him what had happened, and couldn't look at the pictures anymore. As long as I wasn't looking, they couldn't make me crazy. I couldn't muster the wit to make up an excuse for my outburst, and I wouldn't have been able to fool him, anyway.

On the way to the palace, it occurred to me that maybe Dimitri could have been that which I had been looking for all my life. Even though he wasn't my father, he was as close to one as I had. And while my mom had her disappearing days, Dimitri never had. Maybe Anton would have shared him with me.

But I was eighteen now, and it was too late. I was a gown up woman now, and the damage was done. I was already going mad.

Still, I was unfathomably grateful for his hand on my shoulder all the way through the Court lawns and pathways, and though my shaking was subsiding now, I think that for most of the way, he was all that held me up.

Mom was somewhere around Court, doing queen business, so Dimitri escorted me to my room and made sure I was comfortable before he left. He asked me whether there was someone I could call, and I told him I was okay so I didn't have to tell that no, there was no one I could call. I wasn't going to call anyone telling them that I was going crazy from magic use that became necessary when I sent my sister and her friend into the past so they could solve our mommy and daddy issues.

I had managed to calm myself down by the time I heard Mom rummaging around somewhere in the apartment. She would probably fix herself a tea or a coffee, even though it was late, and then go into her study and do some more work. My mom was never done with work. She must be the most effervescent queen in history. She definitely had the highest new-policy-count ever.

I checked my reflection in a mirror to make sure all the crying today didn't show – my face was puffy, but I could always say that I'd been sleeping. You could always use this excuse during the holidays. Then I left my room, padded through the ridiculously palace-like enormous corridor and knocked at her study door.

"Come in," she called. I had learned to always wait for her call, because if I didn't, I barged in on her crying all too often.

She was sitting at her desk, as expected, a steaming cup and a tidy stack of papers in front of her. I really hoped she wasn't planning on working through all of that in one night.

I leaned against the door frame, not knowing what to say. I had just wanted to be with her.

She pushed her chair away from her desk, angling it towards me. "I met your old friend Martina today," she said, chattily. "She's going to college, too, you know."

"Hm. Good," I mumbled. Mom gave me a sharp look.

"What's up with you, Lily? You're not having second thoughts about college? I'm not going to allow you to bail before you've tried it."

"Everyone's making such a big deal of college!" I exclaimed. "No, Mom, I'm fine with going to college. I'm looking forward to it."

Honestly, I really didn't know where all the fuss was coming from. It wasn't so different from the academy, after all. Sure, there wouldn't be exclusively Moroi and dhampir students, but I could deal with humans. In fact, I was excited to see all the humans. They would be the only people who would treat me like a normal person, seeing as they had no idea I was a queen's daughter, and I was quite determined to make myself a lot of human friends.

"Good," Mom said. "It will also make you stop moping around here all day. It's your holidays, honey, you should be doing more fun things!"

Like what? Fighting mental breakdown… fearing for my sister's life… extracting unhandy knowledge from my mom's mind… So many fun things! What else did an eighteen-year-old want from her holidays?

"Besides, if you're bored, you could always help your father with his classes. You could still learn a thing or two."

Oh no. Oh, no, no, no, please no.

I closed my eyes. I didn't want to cry. Not in front of her. With Mom crying so much all over the house, even though she'd always tried to hide it, Ava and I had almost never cried. Call it overcompensating.

"Lily, what did I say?" Mom said in alarm. Then she furrowed her brow, as if she was honestly confused as to what words had just left her mouth.

That did it for me. I couldn't stop the tears, couldn't stop the hiccup-accompanied sobs that were starting up all over again, and I was a snotty mess in less than five seconds, before Mom had even comprehended what was happening. But then she got up and I threw myself into her arms in a way I hadn't done since I was seven years old. I had stopped running to my mom to cry into her skirts, because she would join into my crying more often than not, and there was little comfort in that. Not this time, though. Tonight, my mom didn't even complain about the snot that I was spreading liberally all over her. Tonight, her embrace and her soothing voice were just as comforting as Dimitri's had been earlier, and she allowed me to snuggle into her side and hide my face as she maneuvered me onto her little study room sofa. I spared a few seconds appreciating how lucky I was, dissolving into tears twice in one day and having someone there for me both times.

"Lily, honey, why don't you tell me what upset you so much?" she said softly.

"I can't, Mom," I hacked out between sobs. "I can't!"

"Maybe I can make it easier for you," she said carefully. "Sweetie, I'm a spirit user, too, remember? I'm going to hazard a guess here and say that you might be missing Anton in a way that's quite different from what you expected."

I peeled my tear-stained face from her neck to look at her. "How do you know?" I gulped.

She smoothed down bits of my hair that had gone wild when I was rubbing my head against her shoulder. "I never had someone like Anton around when I discovered I was a spirit user. I went through what you're going through when I was younger. And honey, I wanted to warn you, about how going to college means that you'll have to go easy on your spirit use, but I didn't expect this to happen quite so soon. You must have been using much more spirit that I thought."

I almost lost what little composure I had gained when she talked, because I still wouldn't be able to tell her what I had used so much spirit on, but she quickly went on when she saw my face scrunch up again.

"It's okay, sweetie, I'm not going to monitor what you use magic for. I do hope it is not illegal, but I think I raised you better than that."

I might have smiled, but I wasn't yet able to. "What was it like for you?"

She took a breath. "Well, this could take a while. Get comfortable."

I tucked my legs up under my body, and settled against her side more comfortably. This sofa was a place I had spent a lot of time as a kid, playing quietly or reading or falling asleep here instead of in my room because I had wanted to be with Mom, and always hoping that she would sit down with me, so I could snuggle against her exactly the way I did now.

Mom didn't start talking immediately, and in her silence, it occurred to me that my mom must have felt very similar to how I felt now: lost and desperate and desperately afraid of going crazy, of losing control.

"When I started to feel the effects of spirit," she began, "I didn't even know about spirit yet. I still thought that I simply hadn't specialized yet." With that, she launched into a tale I had heard fragments of many times before. But never before had I bothered to fully appreciate the stark contrast of how she and I grew into our magical element. She had given me everything that had been missing in her time: guidance, explanation, caution, and understanding. My mom might have lacked a good few parenting qualities, but when it came to magic, she had always tried her best to make life easier for me than it had been for her.

"I harmed myself," she told me cautiously. "When it got really bad. I… well, I have always had a penchant for depression."

She had at that, and it no longer had anything to do with her spirit use.

"For me…" I wanted to explain, but I didn't know how to do it without mentioning her dead husband. I couldn't risk her breaking down along with me. I wouldn't be able to take it. "Mom, what… what did you say earlier… before I … um, started crying?"

She looked at me. There was this bedazzled look of confusion in her eyes, again. "I don't quite remember," she said slowly.

"I thought I heard…" I pulled my legs up and hugged my knees, stalling. "I think I'm imagining things. Hallucinating."

"Well, it's different for everyone," Mom mused. She put her arm around me and pulled me close, the whole rolled-up bundle of me. "And it's perfectly okay, honey. It's okay to go a little bit crazy. I did, and Adrian even more so. Adrian even resorted to taking pills for quite a while, before we realized what Declan could do. But frightening though the experience is, I think we have to go through it so that we know what's at stake for us. So you can learn to restrict yourself. And I know that you're strong, honey. You're strong enough to limit your spirit use."

Oh Mom. Maybe I was, but not now! I couldn't let her and Dimitri know that maybe I had lost their children in the past.

Although, if Anton and Ava didn't come back, then I would have to fess up to them eventually.

There was a quiet knock on our apartment door.

Mom gave me another squeeze. "Is it okay if I open up? It's probably the guardians, you know how they get when I don't answer."

I gave her my nodded okay, and she discreetly closed the study door so far that whoever was at the front door wouldn't get a good look at my red and puffy face.

The heard Mom open the door, and then, Dimitri's voice: "Vasilisa."

Well, Dimitri had seen me crying so much today; a little more didn't make a difference. I went to peek through the half-closed study door and I arrived just in time to see him push past my mom into the hall. He must be upset; there was little of his usual calm demeanor in the way he didn't even wait for her to say hi.

"I just realized something," he declared.

"Must be important," Mom got in before he waltzed her over again.

"School hasn't started yet," Dimitri said. He spotted me in the open door, and I suddenly had a very good idea of how it must feel like to be staked by ex-guardian-deity Dimitri Belikov.

"School hasn't started," he repeated heavily. "School starts in a few days. The academy isn't open during the holidays. There are currently no students at the academy."

He made a few steps past my stunned mom, towards me, and was towering over me in the dimly lit corridor.

"Yet Ava and Anton are not at Court. They are not anywhere I can find them. And they're most definitely not at the academy."

He was a friend, almost family to me. But in all my life, I had never seen this friend look so dangerous.

"So, Lily. Where are Anton and Ava? Where is my son?"

* * *

 **Thank you so much for all the reviews for last chapter! I was seriously glad that you didn't find it too soppy, and that you think that Rose was captured all right. I'll be excited to read your thoughts on this one!**


	25. In Pieces

**Thanks for the reviews for last chapter! Seems like Lily has become quite a popular character, especially with future Dimitri around :)**

* * *

Selinsgrove was barely more than an assortment of a few streets, quickly merging into rural farmland. I recognized it from Ava's and my previous visit, mainly because it was so small that we had landed in pretty much the same area I had walked through with Ava a long time ago. It had been daytime then, because we hadn't dared venture out in the night. This time though, Strigoi were the least of our worries. In fact, I think all three of us had rather battle a few hundred Strigoi for the rest of the night instead of doing what we were doing.

I led my mom and dad along a winding dirt road that went out of the populated area, out into the fields that were filled with moonlight and the nightly sounds of crickets and wind. The path had stuck in my brain, even though I had only been here one single time. We passed a farmhouse with brightly lit windows, another one that was all dark. The darkness grew thicker; there were no more streetlamps here, and no more warm yellow light shining out of windows behind which families were going after their peaceful lives. Far ahead, another dark building was barely visible through the darkening of a darkness that was already so dark as to perfectly describe our thoughts. Interrupting the perfect black, like a knife cutting through blood and skin, was a wavering dot of light, watery like Robert's eyes.

"He has a thing for abandoned buildings, doesn't he?" grumbled Rose. Clearly, she wasn't giving herself any time for brooding.

"He does seem to have a weakness for spooky haunts," Dimitri agreed.

"Robert Doru _is_ the spooky haunt," Rose countered lightly.

We stood still, watching the dark house with the one illuminated window.

"Do we just barge in?" I asked, not quite able to match their bantering tone.

"We have to do what he least expects," Dimitri mused. "What does he not expect?"

"For someone other than Rose to come barging in," I said. That much I was sure of.

"Anton." The forced lightness was falling off Rose like a dropped cloak. "Are you saying-"

"I'll try to distract him long enough so that you and Dimitri can grab Lissa and run. As soon as she's outside, I'll try to get away, but the main thing is to get Lissa out and to keep her safe. Everything else doesn't matter."

Rose looked like she wanted to say something, but it was Dimitri who spoke up, his voice unusually sharp: "That's not how we're going to go about this. We might have agreed that we're ready to lose everything, but that doesn't mean we're just going to throw it all away. So, no, Anton – everything else does not not matter. We are going to fight for our lives and yours, too, Anton."

He started walking again, and I barely caught what he said next: "I'll do it."

I had to suppress a groan. So stubborn! And they wondered where I got it from! "That's not going to be very helpful," I called after him. He stopped.

"Robert knows what you mean to Rose. He might try to capture you as well, to gain more leverage."

"But I'm still—"

"Also, your potential as a diversion is much smaller than mine. My involvement puzzles him. He doesn't know who I am, so he'll be distracted trying to figure out why I'm there."

"But like I said, we're not going to—"

"Look, Dad," I exploded. "I know it goes against your guts to jeopardize someone else when you could protect them instead, but in this situation, it simply doesn't make any sense! It doesn't make any sense to try to protect me while endangering yourselves! My life is tied to yours, it is impossible to save me if one of you dies!"

They stood and stared at me. It only occurred to me after a few seconds of heavy breathing that this might be because I had said 'Dad' so naturally. Then I saw the hard glint in Rose's eyes, and wondered whether she resented me never having called her Mom.

"Well," said Rose, trying and failing to keep her voice neutral. "In that case… at least try not to die before we do."

It was as good a permission to go risk my neck as ever I'd get. For a moment, I lingered, torn between wanting a goodbye, and wanting to live. I could have neither of these things, because to live would mean to see die and to say goodbye would mean giving up on life.

I started off towards the house by myself, leaving the dark silhouettes of my mom and dad behind me.

The closer I came to the house, the more the light seemed to dim. It had appeared like a bright beacon from afar, but from up close, it was no more than a diffuse glow. It bathed the barely recognizable garden path in a deceptively warm gold, and put the dilapidated front door in even darker shadows.

By the look of the door, it would either crumble to dust at my touch or creak loud enough to wake the whole neighborhood. I laid my hand on the doorknob and allowed myself one last breath, before giving it a determined push and trying my best not to jump upon discovering that it, indeed, made a racket to compete with Lily blowing her nose.

I left the door wide open. Rose and Dimitri would do better with stealth on their side.

Once inside, I looked for the stairs, cursing Robert's shrewdness in picking an upstairs room – I hadn't been able reach a window, so I'd been unable to spy from outside. I discovered a staircase in the back, plunged in even deeper darkness now my eyes had grown accustomed to what little light had penetrated into the garden. I paused for a few seconds, letting my eyes adjust, then started up the stairs in as light a footfall as I could manage. The steps were stone, and in contrast to the door, they allowed me to proceed absolutely noiselessly.

The first floor landing was painted with stripes of light coming through the cracks in the door up ahead. There was a low shuffling sound, and I imagined Robert pacing around the room victoriously.

Resigning to the fact that now was the time to shed stealth, I decided for a bold entrance. After a second of steeling myself, I gathered speed and ran, crossing the short landing in a few steps, and almost took the door with me as I threw myself against it. It wasn't locked; it opened easily, spilling me inside into the light, releasing me into the too-bright room with surprising readiness.

I blinked over the skip in my heartbeat. The room was large, much larger than I would have expected in an old house like this, and I felt lost in it. I didn't spot Robert immediately; thoughts rose up as I searched for him, frantically, trying to locate the threat – it was a trap, he wasn't here, he'd hoodwinked us once again – then I found him in the far corner, standing lazily against the wall, his drab brown and grey clothes making him blend into the equally drab, moldy-grey wall.

Much more prominent, though, tied to a chair in the center of the room, was Lissa. She was sitting very upright and still; her blond hair was ruffled and sticking out of a cloth tied around her head in a manner that suggested a struggle had accompanied the process of blindfolding her. Of course Robert would have done that – most spirit tricks required eye contact, be it compulsion or telekinesis. Robbed of her sight, Lissa was virtually powerless.

Involuntarily, my eyes lingered for a moment on the blindfold. It was red and had a pattern of crossed swords on it – it looked like something a little kid would wear to play pirate. The absurd image of Robert standing in a toy store, carefully choosing a scarf for Lissa as if he wanted to make her a present popped up in my mind.

As my mind raced on – would she be able to free herself if I could get her blindfold off? – Robert disengaged himself from the wall and sauntered a few steps towards me.

"You," he said, in a wondering tone. "Why are you here?"

"That is pretty obvious, isn't it?" I said. If I wasn't so likely to die today, I might have been proud of how calm I sounded.

"Well, now you mention it," Robert said with a glance at Lissa, "In a way it is. In a way, it isn't. Who are you?" He changed track so casually – as if he was asking a new classmate for his name - that he caught me completely off-guard.

"I… what do you… What?"

"I want to understand," he said. "Why you fight for her."

Distraction, I reminded myself. Rose and Dimitri would come barging in here every minute now. I should be distracting him and not the other way around. I had to take Robert's mind off things, off Lissa.

"We all fight for her," Lissa said, suddenly, her voice unwavering and defiant. "Because we love her."

No, Lissa, no. She had to be quiet. I had to draw his attention away from her.

"Why are you so interested?" I blurted, saying the first thing that came to mind. I took a few steps forward. There was a flash of a sly grin on his face that could mean nothing good.

"Why is it you came for her?" he insisted. "Did you come in her stead?"

"Yes," I said, desperately. "Rose won't come. She knows… she knows Lissa would want her to live. And if there is no chance you'll let Lissa go anyway…"

He scoffed. "You're lying."

I took another step forwards, and collided with an invisible wall.

"You don't know her." My mouth worked on autopilot; meanwhile, I was thinking frantically. Of course he would shield himself – I should have thought of that. If the wall was still there when Dimitri and Rose made their move, it would be useless… I had to make him falter in his concentration – if he couldn't concentrate, and his control slipped in exactly the right moment…

Angry – anger would work. "You know nothing at all," I said with renewed vigor. "You don't even know why she killed your brother."

"Anton," Lissa said, a warning laced in her voice. "Don't-"

"You have no idea who your brother was," I continued, cutting her off. "What he did."

My plan seemed to work, at least where the anger was concerned. Robert charged towards me, blue eyes blazing. He stopped mere feet away from me, but still in a safe distance. I kept the tip of my toes pressed against the wall, so I would immediately know what his power wavered.

"I don't care," he hissed. "I loved my brother. No matter what he did, he did not deserve murder."

In spite of his rancor, he suddenly looked very tired. Very tired, and very old.

"Anton, be careful," Lissa cried from her chair. "He's not as demented as we thought, he could—"

This time, Robert cut her off. "That's right, I am no longer mad, aren't I?" As fast as it had flared, his temper settled again. "Grieving once took my sanity away, but grieving twice gave it back to me. Ever since he died, I used magic only when I had to. Then I discovered what your kind can do-" My kind, was it now? "-and practiced spirit when the baby was near. It cured my madness, and it strengthened me. But it did not cure my hatred. I have seen Rosemarie Hathaway slay my brother. I will have revenge."

His sudden calm had deflated me. Making him angry would be more difficult than I thought, after all.

"If your brother hadn't been stupid enough to attack Rose, then she wouldn't have had to defend herself," I said, earning an exasperated groan from Lissa. "It was as much his stupidity that killed him than Rose."

"Want to wash her image clean, do you?" He was unfazed. "Why do you love her?"

That question again.

"He was a monster," I continued, choosing to ignore it. "Did you never ask what cured him of his illness?" I desperately tried to remember every scrap of information that Lissa and Rose had ever given me about Victor's attempt to leech Lissa's spirit powers for healing.

"No," he said simply. "I didn't."

"I did," Lissa said. Her head was turned towards our voices. "I healed him. He made me."

Robert opened his mouth to counter, but then, he stopped. For the first time, he seemed perturbed.

"Why didn't he ask me to heal him?"

Lissa continued. "He could have _asked_ me, too, Robert! I loved him once, he was family to me! I trusted him, and if I'd known I could heal him, I would have done it voluntarily! But instead, he chose to abduct me and force the healing out of me."

I stood frozen, listening. I could do no better than that, distraction-wise.

"But…" Confusion showed in Robert's wide blue eyes. "Why?"

"Because no one spirit user could have healed him permanently," Lissa explained. "Even healing him once made me pass out from exhaustion. Victor was terminally ill, and he would have needed to drain a spirit user time and time again if he wanted to stay healthy. He intended to keep my captive, forcing me to deplete my powers again and again, until there was nothing left of me. Robert, he… he was willing to let me waste away so that he could live!"

Robert stared; I could see him swallow, a sharp rise and fall of his jugular. He seemed lost for words. The invisible wall pressing against my foot gave way a little.

"He went to jail for it," I said when neither he nor Lissa spoke. "He went to Tarasov."

"But he got out," Robert whispered. "That was when he came to visit me again…"

Had it been the little house I had seen in the dream that Robert had lived in then? Had he welcomed his brother amongst the cluttered workbench and the untidy kitchen?

"He only visited you because he needed to make a deal," I ventured, desperately. The wall went from solid to almost gone, and back again. "He would just have forgotten about you, otherwise." I had no idea whether this was true, but it served its purpose. The wall caved in; my foot encountered no further resistance.

At exactly this moment, two dark shapes exploded through the windows. The clear, high sound of shattering glass rang out as their bodies seared through the panes, and they came down in a silvery rain of glittering shards. Ghostlike, they rose up in magically fluid motions and were across the room before Robert had even fully turned towards them.

A cry rose up, and I dashed forwards, but even while I collided with Robert and took him with me to the ground, the shards rose up from the ground and converged in a shimmering cloud on Lissa, who sat blind and helpless on her chair.

Everything froze. Dimitri and Rose, almost upon her, froze, tiny pieces of glass still falling from their forms. I froze, on the ground, mere inches away from Robert and yet hopelessly far away, because I could never stop him in time to stop those shards, hovering in the air like see-through butterflies, ready to bury themselves into the mother of my friend.

"Get… away… from me," Robert hissed through clenched teeth. Though he was on the ground with me, his sharp eyes were on everything in the room at once. Slowly, I edged away from him. Rose and Dimitri didn't move.

He got up. Silvery glass dusted his brown jacket. His army of deadly butterflies stood still in the air.

Then Lissa's small voice cut the silence. "What happened?" Her body was tensed; she was perched as much on the edge of her chair as her bonds would allow her. Still blindfolded, she was utterly unaware of the razor-sharp edges hovering inches from her throat.

"It's us, Liss," Rose uttered quietly, her calm voice at odds with the poised tension of her body.

"It is you," Robert said, coldly. "And even though I told you that you had no hope of saving your friend."

"You want me, Robert," Rose said. "You want me tortured and killed. You can have me. Here I am."

"Indeed, it seems that I do have everything you hold dear in this room," Robert drawled, slowly. His eyes raked over her and Dimitri, then came to rest on me. "Even though I do not know the reason for your attachment to this one."

Then he fixed his watery eyes back on Dimitri, and added maliciously: "You have brought me more than I ever wanted."

At this, Dimitri spoke. "You need someone to torture Rose with. You have me now. You can let the queen go and still have everything you need to torment Rose to the end of her life."

So blandly said. I could see the stab his words sent through me mirrored in Rose's eyes.

It was plain to see that the love entanglements were over Robert's head by now. He may have captured Lissa because he knew how much pain it would cause Rose to see her suffer. But he had not expected every one of us to be ready to suffer along with her.

"You mistake me for a cold-blooded killer," he growled. "I am not. I am no worse than what she is. I want no more for her than she did to me."

"Then take me," Dimitri replied, still a picture of serenity. "And let Lissa go."

"Why?"

"You healed Ava," I whispered. It dawned me then, the realization: that there might still be a real chance for my friend to live. "You didn't want her to get hurt."

The moment I'd said it, I realized it had been a mistake. Robert scowled. "You think I am weak because I didn't let the girl die? If you do, you are mistaken. I don't care how many of you die, anymore. You're all in with Rose. I told you to let it go, that I only wanted her to experience what she has done to me. Yet you persist in coming. It will be you own fault if you die."

"But Lissa," I stammered. This had to work, it just had to work. "Did she tell you? She's pregnant."

He gave no outward sign of distress, but still, I continued. "She's more than one person. There's a baby with her! You'd be killing her baby with her… And she never consented to being here."

His blue eyes turned to me, drilling into me. I felt myself go rigid with a sharp shock; he turned back to them, leaving me a living statue – I couldn't budge, only my eyes would move…

"If that's the case…" The glittering cloud of glass jerked, then hurtled through the air like a swarm of silvery fish. It skirted Rose, who was only a few feet away from Lissa, and gathered around Dimitri's head, exactly the way it had around Lissa's before.

There was no sound but our collective intake of breath. And Lissa's little whisper: "What's going on?"

Rose took a shuddering breath, but she didn't budge. "Let Lissa go, now."

"No," Robert said, simply. "I won't. Yet."

Rose closed her eyes. Just for one brief moment. "For what it's worth," she said. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

I struggled against my bonds; it was like moving through drying concrete.

"I didn't want – I didn't want to – kill him. I – he attacked me. And I had so much of the spirit darkness…"

She didn't look at him – she seemed unable to meet his eyes, and it made her miss the sudden change in Robert's expression. His watery blue eyes took on a fire that they had never had before. His teeth clenched, and his mouth twisted into a snarl.

I was beginning to feel the tell-tale signs of magical exhaustion – Robert must be tapping into my magical enhancement powers quite liberally, and he must be doing it with eye-contact only, not with touch. Another spirit peculiarity, I guess.

"Are you saying," he growled in a tone so dangerous it finally made Rose look up. "Are you saying that my brother is to _blame_ for what you did to him?"

"No," Rose said, her voice dropped to no more than a whisper. Yes, I thought. Victor had taunted and goaded Rose, had attacked her and he'd known that Rose was dangerous. He was to blame for his death just as much as Rose was.

"I think you can never be blamed for your death at the hands of another person."

But it had been self-defense! It wasn't like actual murder – it wasn't as if the victim could not be held accountable for his part of the proceedings. Defense wasn't like murder – Rose had never had the intention to kill!

Robert, instead of growing angrier, now went deadly calm. "Then why," he said through barely moving teeth, "did you kill him?"

"I wasn't being careful with him," Rose said. She was looking Robert straight into his fiery eyes. "He'd hurt my best friend. I hated him. When he attacked me, I defended myself with more strength than I needed to."

Whatever she had indented, it surely was not what happened now. The glass ceased floating around as a cloud; I felt a sharp tug to my strength as they seemed to implode, forming a glittering, see-through, but deadly sharp-edged sword. My vision went blurry with the added energy Robert took from me in order to do this.

"He didn't hurt the girl," Robert shrieked with an oddly high-pitched voice. "He didn't!"

Then I heard Rose's scream, "No!", and as my vision came back, the blade made for Lissa and was intercepted by the lightning-fast blur that was my mom jumping in front of the helplessly tied queen. Dimitri yelled, sprang forwards, and received a blast of energy into his chest so strong is sent him flying backwards. He collided head-first with the far wall and collapsed on the floor, where he lay unmoving.

Robert stood in the middle of the havoc he'd wreaked, breathing heavily and surveying the chaos. For one breathless moment, I got the impression that he was shocked at the sight of what he had done.

"Rose?" Lissa whimpered.

On the floor, at her feet, my mom lay with a bleeding gash running from her shoulder to the middle of her chest. The blade had sprung into shards once again when Robert's magic no longer held it together; a few were still imbedded in her skin.

"No," I croaked, finding my voice faint. I redoubled my struggles against my bonds, but they didn't waiver.

"Anton," Lissa was crying behind her blindfold. "Anton, what's going on?"

I wouldn't have been able to talk even if I'd known what words to form.

"It wasn't my brother. He didn't do a thing like this. He did none of it." Robert's voice held a shaky edge of desperation. He was still standing as if rooted to the spot.

"You didn't know your brother, Robert," Lissa said softly, her voice thick with tears I couldn't see. "Believe me, I've been tricked as well. I'm so sorry, Robert!" Weirdly enough, she sounded absolutely sincere. Robert raised his head at her, incredulous.

"Sorry?" he repeated in a whisper.

"I'm a spirit user like you, I know how hard it is to deal with the darkness! And Victor was the only family you had. Losing him must have been devastating for you. Just as losing Rose would be for me."

"Let me go to her," I said. I had eyes only for her, stirring feebly, blood seeping out of her wound with every weakening beat of her heart.

"Killing Rose won't help you," Lissa continued, her voice almost giving out.

"Let me go to her," I cried, dimly noting the desperation in my own voice. "Let me go! She's dying! Please, she's – let me be with her. Please…"

Robert's watery stare turned to me. The sight of his tears sent a jolt through me, but I didn't have it in me to pity him.

"Please," I whispered.

When his powers released me, I sank to my knees, wobbly from all the energy he had taken from me. I didn't waste a second in picking myself up, and staggered over to my dying mom. I dropped next to her, barely registering the glass shards that cut my legs.

My voice was even more unsteady than my legs. "Rose?"

I took her hand that was hovering over the bleeding gash as if trying to keep the blood in. Her eyes opened. A small smile formed on her lips.

"I'm so sorry, Anton," she whispered. "I had hoped against hope that you could survive this."

"It doesn't matter," I replied, forcing a smile of my own.

"Dimitri?"

"He's only knocked out."

"Will he be okay?" Her voice was growing fainter already.

"Eventually," I lied.

Lissa was sobbing noiselessly. It was torture to know that if only I could free her, Rose would be saved. But Robert would never allow it.

"Why?" It was him, sounding utterly desperate himself. "Why do you love her so much?"

It seemed like every second I spent not looking at her was a wasted one, but I pried my eyes from her to look at him. I didn't have the energy to display any hate. Instead, I showed him all my sadness as I caught his teary colorless eyes. "Because she is my mom."

That was all the attention I was going to give him. I turned back to Rose, who was breathing in short, shallow gasps. She still managed to smile, though.

"I'm so, so sorry," she said, barely audible. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," I said. And then, for the first time in earnest: "Mom. Mom, it's okay."

I desperately wished for one last hug, but I didn't dare move her. I could lose the last precious moment of her life.

"…hear that more often," she breathed.

A shadow was falling on her from above, and I leaned over her protectively, instinctively, but Robert was, as always, overpowering. I could do nothing as he bent down, and stretched out his hand. Rose's eyes met his without misgivings. He reached for her chest, and, surprisingly gently, put his fingers over her heart.

My first thought was that he wanted to show mercy and deal a quick death. My second was that he wanted to steal her last heartbeat away from me. Only then did I realize that none of that was true.

Robert was healing her.

Rose's hand returned my fierce grip gently; I met her eyes, briefly, before they drifted close with a sigh. But her chest was rising and falling steadily, and the gash in her flesh was closing; her blood-soaked shirt was still torn and bloody, but underneath, her skin knitted together under Robert's light but powerful touch.

A haze settled over everything but Rose and Robert and me. Things were happening outside of that haze; the door burst open; two figures stood there and froze on the spot when they saw what was happening; Lissa sat still on her chair turned prison, not daring to interfere; Dimitri lay where he had fallen, stirring feebly. And Rose, my beautiful mother who had been so ready to lay down her life for her friend, slowly returned from on the brink of death to the land of the living.

She lay there with her eyes closed, weakly pressing my hand against her cheek, no longer bleeding. Time seemed suspended as Robert lingered with his hand outstretched. At the door were Ava and Christian, who must have burst in only to see that they were too late, and then to wait paralyzed as the unthinkable happened. At the far wall, Dimitri sat up slowly, still stunned. Lissa no longer cried.

Robert's voice rang like church bells in the heavy silence. "I'm going to leave now."

He stood up. Turned, eyes still lingering on Rose, to make his way to the door. The way seemed to stretch infinitely as his steps sounded hollowly to accompany his surrender. He passed by Christian and Ava, who stepped back, mutely letting him pass, silently following him with their eyes. Robert looked twenty years older as he left; he looked as old as I had first known him, though for him, years had yet to pass until then. The last I saw was his hunched back, retreating, leaving us in a room full of blood, shards, and miraculously, unbelievably, very alive people.

Then, color and noise came back to the world.

Dimitri staggered over and dropped down by Rose's head. Lissa was swiftly freed by Christian, and fell into his arms still blindfolded. And Ava – Ava sat down next to me in the middle of the glass shards, and gently led me up the way of death and dying into the considerably more blissful reality again.

"You did it," she whispered. I felt her arms wrap around me, and found myself returning the hug with a pressure that threatened to suffocate her. Next to us, Dimitri was fretting over Rose, who reached up to him with a tired, but happy smile. "Roza," he repeated, "Roza, my Roza," as if to make sure it was still her.

Lissa, who had finally ripped the cloth off her eyes, perched down by Rose's side and frantically tried to make sense of all the destruction she had only heard, not seen; however, Rose was in good hands, being helped into a sitting position by Dimitri, so Lissa turned back to Christian. I was only half paying attention to everything going on, just bathing in the general glow of relief and happiness, and feeling safe beside Ava, but what Lissa said next served to focus my attention pretty quickly.

"Christian," she said decisively, facing him head-on. "Do you want to marry me?"

"Of course I do," he replied, slightly confused but without hesitation. "Whom else would I want to marry?"

I blinked. I saw Rose and Dimitri and Ava blink as well. Ava's eyebrows slowly rose up higher and higher during the short stretch of silence, which then Rose broke.

"That," she said weakly, "was the most unromantic response to a marriage proposal that ever was made."

"Oh," said Christian. Then: "That was a proposal?"

"I guess it was."

For a moment, he stared at her, openmouthed. A few months' worth of careful timing efforts seemed to war with a spreading grin as he found his voice again: "No fair! I was planning to propose for months, but you wouldn't find the time to properly listen!"

Dimitri, on the other hand, turned to Rose, and said, in a tone impossibly dry for someone who had just almost watched his girlfriend die: "There you go, they're engaged. Can we please get married, now, finally?"

Rose's smile turned much brighter and considerably more devious, and Lissa and Christian chuckled softly in their embrace.

"If you weren't engaged already, this would be the most unromantic proposal ever," Christian said, and then I noticed their voices growing fainter. Ava and I still had our arms around each other, and Ava's arms were the only thing that stayed with me, now, as my mom and dad, Lissa and Christian slowly faded, slipping away from me, and we ourselves faded, everything whitening out until nothing remained but a faint, silver thought that I couldn't quite grasp, but that had something to do with, _don't forget them_.

* * *

 **Don't want to disturb the mood... I hope there is a mood now...All I need to say is that I've been wanting to write that proposal scene forever! And - please review! Review, review, review! :-)  
**


	26. Where The Heart Is

„Anton?"

Oh no, I hadn't heard that. I had definitely not heard that.

To better not hear anything, I rolled over in my cave of blankets and piled more covers over my head. Somehow, I usually ended up sleeping in some kind of fort by the time morning neared, because it brought with it the threat of having to leave my bed. One had to take up arms against that threat. I, for one, fought a constant battle against the moment that invariably came each and every morning, when I had to part company with my blankets. I had made it a science to postpone the moment for as many minutes as I possibly could every day.

"Anton! Get your beautiful lazy butt out of bed! We'll be late!"

Unfortunately for me and the state of the sleep-in war, my mother had a very pervasive voice. She also possessed the quite unique talent of sounding unreservedly cheerful and darkly menacing in equal measure, which never failed to invoke an image of her chasing me out of bed with a stake in one hand and a doughnut in the other. It made staying in bed an act of domestic resistance, while also abbreviating said act of resistance by a considerable amount of time.

I reluctantly opened my eyes and braced myself for the unbearable brightness of what would qualify as dim semi-darkness in anyone but a teenager's view. The door to my room was open, and I could see my parents silhouetted against the light spilling from the bathroom. They were standing very close together and being suspiciously silent –kissing, that meant.

Something stirred within me. Some memory of wanting to bath in the glow of these kisses more often. This was an embarrassingly sentimental thought for a sixteen-year-old and I would never admit to having it, but the truth was that I had never cringed at my parents' kissing the way other teenagers did – I had just always been glad that they were so much in love.

I swung my feet on the floor, and paused briefly. There was suddenly the funny feeling that I had forgotten something. Unexpectedly, an overwhelming feeling of thankfulness washed over me, of how lucky I was to have my parents, both happy and in love and healthy and caring. There was a little voice in my head – it said: 'We saved them.' I couldn't exactly make sense of that – I had no idea who had saved whom – but neither did it strike me that there was anything wrong with that sentence.

A sigh escaped me, the sole utterance of my deep regret that it was the last day of the holidays – I would have to say goodbye to lying in now. My family and Ava's would have a little get-together before Ava I were off for the academy after the long summer holidays. It would be the first time we'd leave without Lily, who had graduated and would be going to college now.

With a last lingering thought about something that had been put right – I'm sure that I used to remember what – I left my room for the bathroom, newly vacated now my parents had taken their morning kissing ritual to somewhere else.

A few minutes later, I went to join them in our tiny cluttered kitchen, where I thoughtfully regarded my mom as she simultaneously juggled three mugs and a coffee pot and, for some reason, rinsed a couple of stakes in the kitchen sink.

"Mom – did you just comment on my butt?"

"Anything to wake you up, honey," she chimed, and greeted me with a kiss on the cheek and a plate full of doughnuts. "Good work on the rising. Now let's work on the shining part."

"Sure, Mom," I said. "Just about to shine."

.

* * *

 **.**

 **\- Lily-**

Things were definitely weird around here. I could have sworn that just minutes ago, I had faced a very angry and very worried Dimitri, who had lost his son and didn't know where to find him, and I had the distinct impression that he had been right in asking me where he was, because I did know all about it. I also had the unpleasant suspicion that maybe I hadn't been all that innocent in Dimitri's losing track of his son's whereabouts.

This had all either been a really vivid dream, or something weird was going on.

One piece of evidence suggesting it had been a dream was that I was currently sitting on my own bed in my own room, as opposed to standing in the open doorway of my mom's study. A piece of evidence suggesting it had to be more than a dream was the fact that I had no recollection of getting up and dressing this morning.

As I sat on the bed pondering, two very different versions of the past few weeks enfolded in my mind, gradually stretching into two very different versions of my whole life. What was slightly disquieting was the suspicion that I had been going mad in one of those versions. Well, actually, the whole business of recalling two versions of one's past is kind of disquieting, but I determinedly kept my calm, because I knew I was a spirit user, and a spirit user always had to check twice before conceding mental breakdown.

I decided to first determine which of the two versions of the past I was currently living in, by the simple expedient of verifying whether Ava existed – or not.

That part was easily solved as I ran into her, clad in her pajamas and towel in hand on the way to the bathroom.

"Ava?"

"Morning, Lil."

"Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Having second thoughts about letting us go to school all alone?"

"Um, no…" I steered her back into her room and sat her down on her bed. "Look, don't say I'm crazy, but… what have you been up to in the last few weeks?"

She did look at me as if she thought I was crazy. "What, do you think I've been up to something fishy?"

"In a way… but I'm not accusing you of anything. I just want to know."

"Lily, you know what I've been up to. You've been there for most of the time, at least when you weren't off doing who knows what with your _boyfriend_."

Ex-boyfriend and hopefully soon-to-be-again boyfriend, I mentally corrected.

Even while I was thinking this, a smile broke out on my face, and I needed a moment to figure out why I was smiling – I was smiling because I seemed to have narrowly escaped life as a half-orphan.

Looking back over my past was like looking at one of these pictures of optical illusions: look at it one way, and you see a vase. Squint and it becomes two faces in profile. I knew that I had grown up with my mom, my dad and my little sister, living in the palace as part of my mom's job as the Moroi queen. Yet I could also recall having sent said sister back into the past to change the fact that my dad and Ava's best friend's mom had died and not seen us grown up.

Wait, was that some weird hallucination and was I still going mad?

At this point I realized that Ava was studying me intently, and that I still had that involuntary smile on my face.

"Never mind," I said quickly, before she could make a remark. "Go have your shower."

Could it be true? Had I really sent Ava and Anton into the past, and had they changed the version of our lives that didn't look so bright, so that the second one – the much brighter one – came true? Had she changed my life, but I could still remember it as it had been?

The next station in figuring out this puzzle: my mom, formidable spirit user, queen of a secret empire and mom of the year all rolled into one.

She was brewing coffee in the kitchen, and another time I had confronted her in the kitchen briefly flashed through my mind. Shaking my head to get rid of the overlapping images, I realized Mom was looking a little out of it, too. Also, she had put the ground coffee into the jug for the milk and was running the machine on water only.

"Morning, sweetheart," she said absently.

"Hi Mom."

I watched her for a moment. Then I decided that watching would get me nowhere.

"Mom… At the risk of you handing me over to the shrinks, but I have to voice a subtly mental suspicion here…" Well…how was I to phrase this? "I was wondering… you wouldn't happen to currently be feeling slightly confused about the state of the world and wondering if you're remembering a very realistic dream or being crazy?"

She pierced me with an uncomfortably intense gaze, and I was almost sure I had a straightjacket waiting for me in my very near future. Then she said: "Honey – that is an uncannily accurate description of my state of mind."

Yay! Not going crazy, then! "That makes two of us," I said, not quite able to keep the relief out of my voice.

"Does it," she murmured.

"What do you remember?"

Her gaze turned dreamy. "Ava," she said simply.

"Let me clarify – do you mean present pain-in-the-ass kid Ava, or, I don't know, let's say, maybe fifteen year old Ava but twenty years ago?"

Her dreamy gaze suddenly switched back to razor sharp. "You know an awful lot about what's going on in my head, Lily. How come you're so proficient about my thoughts and memories?"

I sat down on the kitchen table, unable once again to prevent a little smile from crossing my face. The other life was hazy, but I knew enough to be glad things had turned out the way they had.

"Well, I might have sent Ava into the past to… um…" My instinct told me that it would not be very wise to tell Mom what we had really stopped from happening, if she didn't remember that bit. "To do a certain errant."

"You sent your sister into the past?" echoed Mom. Her tone was much the same as the one she used to scold me for being mouthy to a teacher or something.

"I'm not really sure, Mom, seeing as Ava doesn't remember anything, did it really happen?" She eyed me sternly, so I quickly added: "I'm sure there's no solid ground for you to be cross with me or anything."

"Well, whatever you wanted to achieve, I think you did," Mom said. Her voice turned all soft all of a sudden as she dropped into a chair opposite me. "Because I'm pretty sure you and I are the only ones who know that something was ever amiss and isn't anymore."

"Because we're spirit users?"

"I guess."

"Mom, do you – remember why Ava was there… in the past?"

"No… I think I never knew exactly what made Ava and Anton come to us in the past. It's not as clear as the other, the _real_ memories are. They are more … glimpses… of memories of another world where I met my younger daughter long before she was born."

She took my hands in hers. "Lily… I can't be cross with you. This goes way over my head, but I trust you. If you sent them, then I know that you must have had to do so."

Well.

Wasn't that something.

My mom and I shared memories of a past that had never happened, because we were both spirit users and had been involved in it. Not even Mom knew that Dad had died… I was alone with that knowledge.

She and I sure had a lot more to talk about and surely would. But evidently, that time was not now, because at this point, my dad and Ava came in, both fresh out of bed and shower and already on each other's cases.

"But Dad, I'm sure I'd have lots to contribute, I could do demonstrations with you, and I could show water user stuff that you can't show, because you're a fire user…"

"Oh, I'm sure you could, and then we'd be swiping the floor for hours after class…"

They ambled through the door basically joined at the hip. Dad had this way of tucking Ava under his arm that fitted her into his side and made them walk together like Siamese twins. Their dispute concerned the usual topic: Ava wanted to go with him to his classes, because she suspected him of teaching his more advanced students things he hadn't taught her yet.

"No we wouldn't, you could just evaporate the water away!"

"Ava, don't give your dad any ideas," Mom scolded her. Sometimes, you had to stop these two, before they took turns flooding and burning the palace.

"That's nice, Liss," Dad countered, icy-blue eyes twinkling. "I've been teaching her my tricks for all her live and now she's not allowed to return the favor?"

He went to kiss her, and his eyes fell on the milk jug full of ground coffee.

"May I ask why we're having hot water for breakfast?" Dad asked, raising an eyebrow. Mom made an excuse, and Ava went back to pleading with Dad, and I just sat there enjoying their teasing. My family was whole and happy and it couldn't be better.

.

* * *

.

 **\- Anton-**

"Make sure you stay out of trouble this year, Anton. Not like last year, when I got letters every other month saying you've been sneaking around after hours. You're going to give Stan a heart attack, and he's too old for that now, hear me?"

"Mom – I have heard stories about your time at school – and I'm not taking any advice from you, believe me."

Dad chuckled softly, and Mom seemed unable to decide between scolding me and laughing with Dad. She resorted to a dignified, "Well, times have changed, haven't they," to which I'm almost sure I could hear Dad mutter something like "Not really..."

"I'm just saying," Mom continued, "Now that Lily can no longer look after you…"

I had to suppress a loud snort at that. Lily look after us? If it wasn't for Lily teaming up with Ava to scheme illicit activities, I would never have been caught being out after hours at all, for I never would have been out after hours. I wasn't the one to suggest any rule breaking – I was, as both Dragomir sisters delighted in reminding me, a _god damn stickler for the rules_. Lily had once suggested that we sneak out after hours, so that she could attempt using spirit to send Ava and me back into the past, so we could stop ourselves from being caught out after hours the previous time!

I was saved from having to disappoint Mom by elucidating her about my true law-abiding nature when we were intercepted by Lily herself, who looked oddly cheerful – I hoped that was not because she was finally rid of us – and who also promptly took over telling Mom all the things Ava and I would probably be up to now that she was no longer at school with us.

We met Ava and her parents upstairs in their big palace suites. It had gotten late, as usual, and we only had about half an hour before we needed to be off to catch our plane back to the academy.

"Rose, Dimitri, Anton!" Lissa, Ava's Mom, exclaimed as we entered. She started to hug everyone and included her daughters who probably had been hugged a million times today already.

We had a fun half hour because my mom and Ava's dad liked bickering so much and Ava, Lily and I had made it a sport to set them against each other. We successfully managed to have them argue about whether or not they liked the teacher who had taught spirit during their time at school (Christian said yes; Mom said no) before they realized that there had never been a spirit teacher during their academy years. Before we knew it, it was time to leave. Guardians would take us to the airport, because if our parents would come, security would be immense and we would never be able to leave.

"See you Thanksgiving!"

"Be good and study!"

"Do remember not to cause any heart attacks, Anton!"

"Do try not to give old Hans a heart attack, Mom!"

"Don't argue Rose's head off, Dad!"

"Oh, as if he could!"

"We'll miss you all!"

I was ushered into the car along with Ava, and under many gleeful have-fun-at-school comments from Lily. I was leaning out of the window to wave to Mom and Dad, and tried to catch a last glimpse of our parents – Christian was saying something to Mom, whereupon she looked at him as if he'd suggested a nationwide ban on doughnuts. Maybe he had. Then they were out of sight, and I turned back to Ava.

"I'm afraid it's going to be a calm year," she said. "Without Lily stirring up trouble wherever we go."

"I might hope for that," I replied. "If I wasn't so sure you won't let that happen."

"I'll be way more difficult with only you as a reluctant accomplice. I almost wish I'd taken Lily up on her offer to send us into some more interesting part of the past."

"We're not even sure she'd actually be able to do that."

"Maybe she could. Imagine witnessing the time Mom became queen and your Mom was accused of murder and had to prove she was innocent and was shot by my dad's aunt."

"Imagine witnessing our parents go to school!"

"Or escaping from school."

"Or seeing Declan as a baby!"

"Or seeing your dad as a Strigoi. That would be scary."

"Or being there the time Aunt Jill was abducted. Who knows, maybe we could have helped! Changed something!"

"But everything went well, Anton. Whatever would you have wanted to change?"

I pondered this question a moment, but then had to conclude: "Nothing. I wouldn't change anything."

* * *

 **The End.**

 **You have just read the very last chapter of my story Turn Back Time. I realize now that maybe I should have warned you in advance that there weren't many pages left… Though I think the story development already told you that it was coming to an end.**

 **If you stayed with this story from beginning to end, then I hope that maybe you feel a little bit like the way you feel when finishing a good book – just a tiny little bit. I hope that I was able to give you a little piece of the VA universe in the way I always look for continuation of the series – I definitely enjoyed writing this story, and I'm going to miss posting a new chapter every Sunday.**

 **If you ever left a review, I want to thank you for each and every one of them, because they all made me hop up and down in front of my computer with joy that someone in this world found my story worth the time and effort to drop me a line, or sometimes even quite a few lines. You would make me very happy by giving me one last final review!**

 **I wish you many more good fanfiction experiences – good ideas to the writers amongst you, and good stories to the readers!**

 **Your LUNAtic**


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